Posted by Bluchie on January 13, 2001 at 07:43:38:
I woke up this morning feeling somewhat empty as well as angry at the thought that possibly a tragedy could have been avoided. I wanted to share what happened to me, my wife, and kids.
I'm going to try to be detailed, but condense this situation in as few words as possible. My wife and I were expecting a baby girl who was born on December 24, 2000, and died December 26, 2000. On December 24, 2000, my wife's water broke, and she went into premature labor. At that time my wife was a little over 7 1/2 months pregnant, or 34 1/2 weeks. The breaking of her water was very alarming due to the fact that it was premature, but more so because of the amount of water that my wife released. Mind you, this was our third child, and although I understand that each pregnancy is different, this appeared abnormal! My wife released close to two (I said TWO) gallons of fluid, give or take some, which was yellowish in color, with a green residue. We were later told that this was meconium. So when I say that the experience was alarming, I mean it was alarming. We were at the kitchen table having dinner when it happened. My wife panicked. My children panicked, and although I did not show it on the outside, I panicked. We had never seen anything like it. I want to back track for a second. My wife had been sick for probably the last two months of this pregnancy. She experienced constant abdominal cramps that were adamantly brought to her doctor’s attention by both of us on several occasions. She also was extremely large. At 7 1/2 months, most people that saw my wife, was sure that she was carrying twins. We even thought so. Several people told us that she was not going to make it another 1 1/2 months. She looked like she was about to pop, and to our surprise she was. This too was brought to my wife's doctor's attention on more than one occasion. When I questioned him, he told me that he was confident that we were not having twins, but he also informed us that her cramps were normal. This seemed anything but normal. I'm not sure that he had any intentions of measuring my wife’s abdomen that day either, but after probing him, he did so. After he measured her, he came back with what I considered a surprised response, and said, "she is large”. The previous month he also stated, “wow this kid is really growing”. Well, was it that the baby was large, or was it that my wife was so full of fluid that the baby from the outside appeared large. When he then indicated, “we will do an ultra sound in two weeks", it upset me because, all I could think of was what were we to do in the interim. He also mentioned that there could have been some excess fluid that he could drain at that time. All I wanted him to do was to look further into this situation, do an ultra sound, or whatever he needed to do to find out what the situation was. I believe that this extremely large amount of fluid forced my wife's plug to give way, and caused her to go into premature labor. December 20, 2000 was our last visit to the doctor prior to my wife going into labor. It was also our last time hearing from him. At any rate, after my wife's water broke, and after calling our doctor, we were informed by a fill in doctor, that antibiotics needed to be administered immediately, and that we needed to get to the hospital immediately. We did so. It was about 4:10 pm when my wife's water broke, and by 6:11 pm our little girl was born by way of emergency cesarean. The reason that we were given for the need to do an emergency cesarean was because the baby was not tolerating the contractions very well. Her heart rate would drop considerably. Another thing that I noticed was by the time the fill in doctor got to the hospital, she was upset because antibiotics had not yet been administered to my wife by the staff on call. What that meant, I don't know.
Our little girl was finally born. She was a beautiful little girl, weighing 4 lbs. 15 ounces. She was 19 inches long. While they were working on her, and others were still sewing my wife back up, I asked on a couple of occasion how our little girl was doing. I was told that she was fine. When I hear medical staff say that she is doing fine, I take comfort in that. After they wrapped her up, they showed her to us, and asked if I wanted to go to the nursery with them. I opted to stay with my wife for a while. After about a half hour or so, I decided to leave my wife, and go to see my baby. It was then that all hell broke loose. While walking down the hall, approaching the nursery, I was tracked down by a nurse, and informed that our baby had gone into an arrest, and had to have CPR. Why I was told before they took our baby to the nursery that she was fine, is beyond me as well. I asked what was going on, and was told that they did not know yet. When I was able to see her, she had wires going to and from her, and a tube down her throat. She was on a respirator. At that time, I was told by her doctor that her lungs were small, and not fully inflating. This was causing her problem. That was all they knew at that time. She seemed to go down hill from there. It was at least two hours later that she was rushed to a children's hospital to be placed on another type of respirator. The reason it took so long for them to transfer her was because of a lack of bed space. Another concern for me is that my child's life was on the balance over bed space. I don't know, but to me that does not seem acceptable. The next day, we were informed that our little girl was diagnosed with AV Canal Defect, which is a heart defect, PPHN or Persistent Pulminary Hypertention in Newborns. This, we were told, contributed to poor blood flow through the lungs. She also had a ruptured umbilical cord, which was caused by intestinal issues. We were told that this issue is what caused the excess fluid. I don't know what caused what, but all I know is that I believe that had my wife's doctor taken the extra precaution to look into the abnormality of my her size, and her constant cramping, he could have possibly detected that something was wrong, and prevented a tragedy. I don't know, you tell me. A few times through out the two days, my daughter went into an arrest, and had to be brought back. On December 26, 2000 at approximately 10:35 pm, her heart rate dropped, and we were informed that she could not be revived.
Please give me some feed back. To say the least, I'm angry.