personal medical question regarding possible malpractice

Factual Questions
1

The recent death of an uncle in Europe allowed letters to surface regarding the death of my mother 37 years ago. My uncle was reporting to my European grandfather (the patriarch) the situation in Canada with regards to my immediate family , the help we were getting and the prospects for the future for a single father of seven, including a newborn. I was the oldest child at 15 years of age, and I was completely unaware of any hint of irregularity with regards to medical care. It turns out that relatives were urging my father to sue, but he refused. I’m asking the medical professionals on this board to to provide any enlightenment regarding this event based on the facts that I present here. My own father absolutely refuses to discuss the details of this event.

1965

My mother enters hospital to give birth to seventh child at 3 am

Doctor arrives at 6 am. Same time nurse informs baby to be born soon

Baby born at 7:22 am

In those days fathers were not permitted in delivery room. By 9 am my father was told that he still could not see my mother because they were busy with other births.

Doctor informs my father that my mother is in critical condition at 9;30 am

Appartently bleeding began 1/2 hour after placenta was expelled. they could not stop the bleeding. Transfusion began with blood plasma because only 2 units of B- were available. However donation totalling 26 units came forward during the day.

The doctor advised that my mother had only “one unit” of fibrine in her blood wheras normal people have 400. The doctor said that 20 units of fibrine would have stopped the bleeding. Keep in mind that Dutch -English translations are involved here.

At one point my mother’s heart stopped for a little. They gave her heart massage and “cooled her down to slow down the life process”. In the meantime they fed her with oxygen under pressure to the lungs.

At 5 pm her blood condition was described as good , but my mother was described as deeply unconscious by my uncle. Apparently the doctor asked if he should wake my mother so my father could talk to her. My father said no, to let her rest. My uncle described my mothers breathing at that moment as " the air came out of her lungs with a puffing sound" which reminded him of his own mother’s deathbed experience 4 years earlier.

Things were looking up and my father was advised to go home. Hoever he got a call from the hospital 30 minutes later and advised to return immediately. My mother died at 5:50 pm.

According to my uncle an autopsy was ordered exposing some “irregularities that weren’t too good”. He was quite vague, but did make reference to oxygen found in her stomach.

If any doctor here can shed some light based on the info provided I would sure appreciate it. My sister claims that several years later the family doctor asked not to be our doctor anymore because of the emotional baggage surrounding this event.

2

Google, “malpractice statute limitations canada”.

http://www.canadamalpractice.com/mqs.pdf

IANA lawyer, but I’d guess that 37 years is probably way past the statute of limitations.

3

I wasn’t even thinking about pursuing revenge DDG. I would never contradict the wishes of my father. I merely want to get a better handle on the truth as to why my mother died, and if some blame can be determined.

4

You would need the exact medical records, someone who could interpret the standards of care at that time and place, and (guessing) translate this into something you could understand.

Leaving aside the wishes of your father, are you sure you wish to pursue this?

You would probably raise more questions than you’d answer.

I’d leave it.

(and yes, heathen has such stories floating aroung in his history)

5

I’ll give this one bump

6

Regarding getting medical records - I’m not certain about the laws in Canada (or wherever it was that the incident occurred), but as of a few years ago, when I tried to get the medical and autopsy records of my deceased father, I was told that my mother had to request them since she was still alive and they were married at the time of his death. Thus you may have to have your father’s cooperation in getting these records, and that may raise some difficult issues if he’s not too eager to have this looked into.

7

I assume by “fibrine” you mean fibrin

Strictly WAG territory after 37 years but one of the main questions is whether SOP pre-delivery medical tests in 1965 normally screened (or could screen) for lack of blood coagulation agents and incipient preeclampisa . If the doctor could tell you how low hers was I assume the answer is yes. It’s important to bear in mind, however, that women “bleeding out” during pregnancy is a lot easier to stop today than 40 years ago and women still occasionally bleed out and die even with all the tools at the disposal of current medical science. Remember that ER episode several years ago about preeclampsia that freaked out every pregnant woman in the country?

8

Real WAG here as to what might have occurred. NOT to be taken as describing what actually did happen.

a retained piece of placenta could have caused copious bleeding within the uterus, and a clot forming inside the uterine cavity would not stop the bleeding, but would serve as a mechanism for using up nearly all her native clotting factors (platelets, fibrin, fibrinogen, etc). Pre-eclampsia or eclampsia might also play a role.

It was a big cause of mortality years ago (and still results in deaths today). The only way to treat was to recognize it fast (hard to do in many cases) and give transfusions of red blood and clotting factors and platelets while doing emergency surgery before the patient became so unstable that any surgery would kill them as surely as not operating.

I don’t know what medical records were like in the Netherlands in the 60’s, but if they were like records in the US back then, there probably wasn’t a lot of information contained in them.

Don’t know if that helps. Any OB/GYN’s out there?

9

I’ve heard of HELLP Syndrome, which stands fro Hemolysis, Elevated Liver {enzymes}, Low platelet

It is a post partum condition which can lead to bleeding, pulmonary edema and ARDS (a serious respiratory condition), which may have led to her being intubated, and placed on a breathing machine. It also is associated with liver failure, kidney failure, and a bleeding disorder called DIC, or Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation.
All very difficult to treat conditions. I don’t know if this helps you to know all of this medical info, but these are only possibilities. Go to www.hellpsyndrome.com for more detailed info.
Just as an aside: it is very difficult w/ such limited info for you to really know what her condition was, much less if her death could have been prevented. It is all very complicated. Good luck.