The pregnant woman lost water, but the midwife said she was just sweating. And she sent the patient home.
When you are expecting your first baby, you are ready to run to the doctor because of every incomprehensible sensation. With the second, you already know what to expect, but still there are reasons for concern, albeit on a much smaller scale. Apparently, this is why doctors often rush to calm the expectant mother first, and then figure out what is wrong. Or not to figure it out – as happened to 30-year-old Briton Kate Patman. She was expecting the birth of her second child, and she had already come up with a name for her future daughter – Poppy. But instead of a holiday, a funeral took place.
Kate and her husband were expecting the birth of their daughter.
“I still can’t believe what happened. And now I have to live with it until the end of my days, ”says Keith.
The pregnancy was completely normal at first. Then, when the baby had to start moving, Kate noted that there were very few movements and they were very weak.
“It’s okay,” the gynecologist told her, “you just don’t have a very active daughter.”
At 22 weeks, Kate began to complain that her hands were going numb every now and then. But this did not alert her doctor. On the contrary, she assured the woman that she had absolutely nothing to worry about.
Kate’s eldest son with a younger sister – she was born a year and a half after Poppy’s death.
Another problem arose later – the size of the abdomen. At first he grew up, as in his first pregnancy. And then, with the next measurement, it turned out that the child was growing too slowly, not showing the proper pace. But even here no recommendations or additional examinations were followed. The doctor simply plotted the numbers on the baby’s growth chart and sent Kate home.
But that was not all. As it turned out, Kate was constantly leaking water. And water leakage is already very serious.
“The first time it happened was on the 25th week,” says the woman. – I ran to my gynecologist. But she didn’t even examine me. She said that I was just sweating, the weather was hot. “
Then the waters poured out again, already at the 32nd week. And again, Kate was sent home – they say, it’s too early for you to give birth. And little Poppy was left in her stomach without water.
“If Kate had been sent for an ultrasound scan, when it became clear that the baby was not growing properly, the study would have confirmed this. She would be stimulated to give birth and Poppy would be born alive and well, ”says Suresh Dugi, an independent consultant obstetrician.
But Kate was not sent anywhere. Only home. And at week 39, Kate started having contractions.
“The last time I felt my little girl stirring was about four o’clock in the evening. I gave birth 15 hours later, at 7 am. Poppy was dead, ”Kate recalls.
Only later did she find out that the doctors had to take additional tests from her to make sure that the liquid was really sweat.
It took a lot of courage to dare to give birth again.
“The result of the tragic mistake of the gynecologist was the intrauterine death of the child,” says the official report, written after the investigation carried out at the hospital.
“They let me hold my Poppy. She looked like she was sleeping. But she was awake. My girl was so tiny. Weighed only 1840 grams. I can’t even explain how I felt then, ”says Keith.
The doctors of the hospital where Kate was pregnant had to admit: yes, they often do not listen to the words of their patients. Their complaints are simply not taken seriously, attributed to hormones and other “pregnant quirks.” The hospital will now compensate Kate for the death of her child. But money is unlikely to make a woman forget and stop mourning her daughter.