Do you think this is medical malpractice? (Long)

In My Humble Opinion
1

Some of you guys may know that I have been pregnant. I had my son on April 2. The whole birth experience was less than pleasant and not at all what I had hoped for, and I want to know just how different it was from your experinces. Also if you are a lawyer or doctor, whether or not you think this is malpractice or just a case of “sucks to be you.”

I went to the hospital for a blood pressure check and told them I had been leaking. The nurse tested and found that my water was leaking so I was admitted. There were no real contraction so on April 2, 7:00 am I was started on a Pitocin drip to start labor. I began having contractions that were not doing much. The second bag of Pitocin was started and the dosage was cranked up. Harder contractions, no results. I dilated some but stopped at 7cm. The baby was not dropping into position either. When the pitocin was stopped, the contractions stopped. At 4:00 pm the doctor decided that we should go ahead and do a C-Section because I was not progressing at all, but not to worry because we had plenty of time, the baby wasn’t in any danger. This is where the story goes wrong. (Don’t worry, the baby comes out ok in this.)
The anesthesiologist comes in and tells my husband to wait in the labor room (the room we had been in for 9 hours now) and they would bring him scrubs and take him to the operating room when I was prepped.
When I got into the OR they started doing the usual stuff - washing my belly, putting up sheets, etc. I could feel the Dr. getting me ready and said to the nurse “Don’t start yet, my husband isn’t here.” She said “Don’t worry, the doctor isn’t starting. He’s just doing a test.” Well, that was BS because I could tell he was cutting me open (no pain, just being able to feel it). I kept saying “Someone go get my husband!” and was crying by this point. The doctor was saying “Why isn’t the dad here? What’s going on?” The anesthesiologist never went back for him. He finally sent someone else who said that my husband couldn’t be found, even though he was in the same room he had been in for 9 hours. Brad, my husband, was finally brought to the room when they were putting my son on the warming table. I was crying and shaking uncontrollably. The anesthesiologist actually looked at my husband and said something like “You look upset. What’s wrong?” Brad replied “You just made me miss the birth of my first child, m— f—. Get away from me you son of a bitch.” Brad went with the baby to the nursery, the anesthesiologist walked away sheepishly, and the doctor went to apologize to Brad, saying basically ‘We screwed up.’ He said “All I can say is that if you ever come here again it won’t happen again.” The Dr. then said that he wouldn’t blame us if we never came back. He did state that it was their fault.
While Brad was doing all this I was being cleaned up. When a person has a C-section she gets a Pitocin drip afterwards to contract the uterus back down - it makes the uterus smaller and controls the bleeding. The anesthesiologist hung a Pitocin drip and turned off my epidural without telling anyone and left.
I am sent to a recovery room. The epidural takes about 45 minutes to wear off so I don’t notice that anything is wrong at first. I am starting to feel pain but assume that is normal considering that I just had abdominal surgery. The pain is getting stronger and I can now feel contractions. In the span of about 10 minutes I went from very uncomfortable to blinding pain. My mother was calling for a nurse, I couldn’t even talk through the pain of the fresh incision coupled with contractions that were very hard and coming right on top of one another with only about 20 seconds between them. I was in so much pain that I actually forgot that I had already had the baby.
A team of three nurses came in and couldn’t understand why I was hurting so bad until one of them looked at the epidural and said “it’s been turned off.” They all got this “Oh shit” look on their faces and started running around. Ann, the recovery nurse, gave me a shot or Toridol (sp?) in my hip, then some morphine in my IV and brought me one of those morphine pumps that you can push a button for. I immediately started pushing that button! They came back five minutes later and took the morphine pump away and decided they would get me something else. They hooked something to my epidural and restarted it. I said I could feel the medicine running through the epidural tube down my back so the nursed decided to flip me over to make sure the epidural was still in my back. While I was on my side (which is a very painful position for someone with a 6 inch cut in their belly)they decided to rip the tape off and retape the epidural line. Then they wanted to undress me and change my gowns. All this while I am literally screaming in pain. My husband finally says “Get out. She’s been through enough - you can change her gown later.”
I was finally taken to my room and allowed to see my son several hours after he was born.
The whole experience was awful. I am upset that I have to force myself not to think about what should have been one of the happiest memories of my life. I have replayed the scene over and over in my head.
I want to know if you guys think this is worth pursuing, or if I should just chalk it up to life experience. How did your birth experience compare?
I have had a couple of lawyers (just friends) tell me that I would be hard pressed to find someone to take the case, but this was a bankruptcy lawyer so I don’t think he is familiar with medical malpractice.
Thanks is advance for your input, and I look forward to hearing your birth stories!

2

Good lord, darlin’, that’s horrible. I’d take your case in a second, but I’m quite a distance from being licensed yet. Talk to a personal injury attorney, one familiar with medical malpractice and negligent infliction of emotional distress in a medical context; he’ll be better equipped to advise you.

3

IANAD, IANAL, and IDPEOTV (I don’t play either on TV), but it doesn’t seem to be what is considered a “strong case.”

I don’t mean to downgrade the horrible nature of what happened to you, but there usually needs to be some actual injury for the case to be considered strong. It does sound like you went through an awful experience, so a sympathetic judge or jury might give you a chance. Has the hospital not offered in any way to compensate you for their numerous errors? It seems like that would make good business sense on their part.

Here is a link with some typical scenarios.

4

I’m really sorry you had to go through that. Aside from the physical pain, I know that we attach so much to the birth experience that it must be terrible to have it go wrong.

I think I agree with DMC, though, that because there was no injury or risk to you or the baby through their negligence, it would not be a strong case. Lawsuits can be equally painful, believe me.

I can really just offer sympathy. I know what pitocin is like–I went through two births with it, mostly without pain relief. It’s hard even when the contractions are building up slowly. To be dropped right into the middle of full contractions must have been horrible.

One thing that I did was to have a doula at both of my births. Aside from helping you deal with the labor, they are great for dealing with problems with the hospital staff–leaving you and your husband free to concentrate on the important stuff.

So, I guess I would be in the “chalk-it-up-to-experience” camp. You have a healthy baby and that’s really the only thing that’s important.

5

I was thinking it might be a “tough luck” type of experience. I don’t really want money so much as I want them to acknowledge that what they did was screwed up.
I had never thought about having a doula. I read about them but thought “There’s no way my experience will go wrong enough to warrant an extra person there.” Live and learn, I guess. Next time I will have one - or at least scream my head off if they try to cut me open without my husband there again!
I do know I will never go back to that hospital again. There was a chain of unrelated errors starting from the time I got there until the day I left. I left most of them out because my post was getting so long already, and also because standing alone they didn’t really warrant much attention.
Like when I had to have three epidurals because it wasn’t in right the first two times. Like the fact I had four bladder catheters inserted because the first time it was pushed way too far into my bladder and was pressing on the baby, and I don’t know why the other two times. Like the fact I was going to breastfeed and the nursery bottle fed him. He never did latch on correctly after that. Like the fact that we had to change rooms because of ants - I found one crawling on my baby’s blanket! - and the nurse acted like I was being a diva for requesting another room.
The hospital did not make any efforts to make amends, DMC. One of the nurses from L&D came by to see me the next day and one of the higher-ups came in “just to see how I was” like she just happened to be on that floor. People did kiss our butts for the first day after he was born.
I can honestly say that if I were shot in the parking lot of this particular hospital that I would drive to another hospital for treatment. But I can also say that I would go through it all again for my son because cher3 is right - that is the most important thing.
Thanks for your replies everyone. And Max, if you had your license I would probably take you up on that offer!

6

Sorry your child’s birth turned out to be such a rotten experience for you and your husband, ellykat. That really stinks. Like the other folks here, though, I doubt that you could put together much of a lawsuit. The fact that everyone came out healthy and well, and it appears that neither your nor your child’s life was put in danger would make it unlikely for anything to come of it. I think that the behavior of your nurse and anesthesiologist was reprehensible, though.

Have you thought about writing a detailed letter of complaint to the hospital, and copying it to the state medical board? (Include the nursery in your complaint, BTW. They should have a clear method for identifying who should not be bottle fed.) Even if nothing comes of it, at least it would be sitting there in a file in case this happens to anyone else.

Best wishes on your new baby. I’m very impressed that you can find the time and energy to go on line with a 4 week old!

7

I am very sorry this happened to you. I can understand how upset you are feeling.

Like others have said here, I don’t think this is the sort of long-lasting, irreparable injury that I associate with the need for malpractice suits. I’m not saying this from a legal standpoint, of course. I just mean there’s a difference between “Screwing up and making things harder for you” versus “Screwing up and ruining or ending someone’s life.”

I think that for your own sanity, you should write a letter. It’s important for the hospital to know about these errors. Perhaps this will get you the apology that you deserve and want. Be concise and be detailed. Two things happened. (1) They failed to include your husband in the birth, purely by oversight (not for any good medical reason) and (2) They turned off your epidural before they were supposed to. It’s important to tell them that the doctor was immediately apologetic about #1 at the time. That matters (to me) and he should be commended for that. Maybe you won’t get an apology, but you will have at least gotten a chance to TELL THEM about the problems. Actually, you might also want to add a #3 about the nursing thing. SO MANY HOSPITALS sabotage nursing, it drives me crazy. After a c-section, establishing nursing is that much harder so they should even more committed to helping you get a good start. It’s infuriating. But even in our progressive, hippie town with huge LLL membership, our hospitals do the same thing. The hospital lactation consultants are worthless.

Don’t beat yourself up about the doula. We had one, but by the time I finally was sectioned, she wasn’t allowed in the room. She did give us a crash course in the procedure before she left, which was helpful, but she couldn’t have helped much if things went weird in the room. And doulas differ in how much they are willing to take on hospital staff who are sucking. They have an obligation to make sure that future doulas are not barred from the birthing process by grumpy staff who mistakenly think they are trouble. So they try to be helpful to the mom without being confrontational to the staff. While one might have helped by giving emotional support to you, it’s not necessarily the case that she could have or would have gone to bat for you with the doctors.

I also had a pretty bad birth experience (on some levels) and an okay one on others. The worst, besides some surgery complications which were totally in the “shit happens” category, I was treated very rudely by a resident (so rudely that my nurse actually chewed him out, according to my doula–something she’d never seen before). It so upset all of us I can still hardly talk about it without gritting my teeth, and I’m pretty sure I’d have to punch him in the nose if I saw him on the street today. That was just the beginning of a long boring screwed-up delivery story. Anyway, I did write a letter about it. In this case, I chose not to mail it, but writing it was cathartic. I also wrote a different letter complimenting my extraordinary nurses. Sorry you didn’t have a contrasting good experience to relate.

Missing the birth is a sad thing. You can never make up for that. I don’t know if this helps, but I found that my son’s birth was not the dreamy Kodak moment I’d hoped. I was cold, I was tired, I was a little freaked out. My husband was the same (although not as cold) and when I beg him for details about seeing Cranky Jr for the first time, he’s hard pressed to come up with anything you’d put on a Hallmark card. I didn’t get to hold Cranky Jr,. for almost a day after his birth! We found, as I guess you have, that the amazing moments come later. I’ve had to let go of a lot of my ideas about how wonderful that moment of birth is. It isn’t great for everyone. It’s too bad the hospital played a role in screwing that up for you. I feel some envy when I hear better birth stories, but I just add Cranky Jr’s birth to my arsenal of Cranky’s Martyrdom. :slight_smile:

8

Thanks for responding, **Walker and Cranky.[\b] My husband and I had a long talk about it this evening and, although we haven’t come to terms with it completely, we are more willing to accept the “shit happens” aspect of the whole experience. We got to have a long talk over a pitcher of margaritas and, ahem, rediscover one another (Grandma watched the little miracle for us this evening) and things are starting to get better.
The info about the doulas is good to know, for next time, in a few years.
Just posting about the whole experince has helped some. Actually writing it out put into words what I was feeling and got it out a little. My husband is still having a harder time with it. I think seeing me in so much pain actually hurt him as much as the physical pain hurt me. Knowing that people have not-so-great moments of “the magical moment of birth” has helped. The really great moments are to come! And some are already here.
Thanks again guys.
Michelle

9

Well, the all bold will teach me not to post after a pitcher of margaritas. Don’t worry - Brad will take the first shift of watching the little miracle so I don’t bold him!

10

Hello, ellykat, and you have my sympathies.

I am with YWalker and CrankyAsAnOldMan**:
You should definitely write up a detailed letter–the more documentation, the better–and cc it to the various parties, as suggested. I haven’t had any babies, but I have had to spend a lot of time stomping around in hospitals and, briefly, a nursing home because of my folks; and I have written several detailed grievance letters when things were going wrong and the folks’ care was being compromised as a result.
We got results, and I hope that you will too.

Good luck!

11

If you wanted to pursue it in court, you might have a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, rather than (or in addition to) medical malpractice.

12

Michelle, one more follow-up comment: I can relate the same thing about Mr. Cranky. Even though I’m the one that suffered the physical pain, I’m finding it a lot easier to be forgiving of the resident and an obstetrician that we didn’t care for. Mr. Cranky is still seething, and it will be two years on Tuesday!!