09-20-2005, 02:13 PM
from the Brampton Guardian ( Sept. 9th/05)
Quote:Throughout my pregnancy, I was told not to go to Peel Memorial Hospital, that it is not a baby friendly hospital.
On March 28, I visited the labour room. My contractions were at 10-minute intervals. I was dilated two centimeters and was told to return when the intensity and frequency increased.
By late evening, I returned to the hospital in pain and was told to wait in the labour triage with six other expectant mothers. The pain was so intense that I was crying and wailing. Within minutes, my contractions were three minutes apart. I was told to hop on the bed, and I did, with assistance from my husband, sister-in-law and mother. The nurse, who checked on me, said I was not fully dilated but 100 per cent effaced. I was then told to walk around the hospital for an hour and come back.
Since it was my third pregnancy, I was a little hesitant, since I was aware of how fast things could move. When I got off the bed and stood, I experienced an acute contraction. I felt the urge to push. I started screaming out to the nurse, "I can't do this. I wanna push, I wanna push." With that said, bang! Out fell my baby, on the hospital floor, in the labour triage, with a ruptured cord.
I was in so much shock about what happened next, is that it felt as if it was an out-of-a body experience. I looked at my precious angel, lying on the floor with no sound or movement. The nurse was screaming for help without even bothering to pick her up. My husband was yelling for a nurse and all the other mothers in the triage room were screaming and crying at what they had witnessed before their eyes. It took approximately three minutes before my daughter was picked up and wheeled out. The nurse paged for a doctor and was told he was busy in the labour room, so the nurse rushed over and ran with my baby to neonatal ICU.
I was placed on the bed and moved to the labour room where I had the cord clamped and the placenta removed. When I did receive my baby alive, I repeatedly questioned the staff about the tests they had supposedly conducted and what they had done to ensure that the drop would not result in complications now or later. I was told they had taken an X-ray and everything was well.
I stayed at the hospital for two days and during the time I had to repeat the incident to the nurses several times, since none of the other nurses were aware such a thing had happened. I requested them to show me all the documentation and X-rays regarding the case. I was told that there had been no special tests ordered, no X-rays done and no follow-up care recommended.
Being a nurse myself, I know my daughter should have been on high monitoring. Given the gravity of her fall, she should have been on HIR routine and proper documentation should have been maintained. To make matters worse, when I went to see my obstetrician, who was away on holidays at the time of the incident, I was told he had no notes or documentation. He apologized for the hospital.
My question is, how can I be reassured that this experience will not repeat and protocols will be put in place?
What do you think Peel Memorial? Why isn't your hospital considered baby friendly?
Yasmine Stephens, Brampton