# Outraged by my ER Visit



## bellusfemina

_I would like to hear any comments from you all, on any part of my following story. I am at this point trying to figure out what to do so this does not EVER happen again to a woman at this hospital. The treatment I received after my admittance to the ER has left me completely astonished. I would like to have an outsider's view of this situation...so here is my story:_

_On December 15th at 2:30 a.m. my husband drove me to the emergency room. I was 13 weeks pregnant and having a miscarriage. I knew that I would miscarry, since I had been diagnosed with a blighted ovum 3 weeks before. I had been given the option from my gynecologist to miscarry naturally or have a D&C. I decided to let my body handle it naturally up until that point. There was no break in-between the contractions (or whatever it was) I was having. Usually people try and describe their pain as either sharp, or burning, or dull. The only way I could describe my pain was like a grindingit felt like someone had a huge metal grinding wheel with all these gears and it was just spinning around inside of me- tearing chunks of something Pure agony. 


I went to the hospital this morning with excruciating pain, and I could not even walk into the hospital- I had to be carried by my husband. I was taken back to one of the rooms and was placed under the care of Dr. McClay. My husband and Mother were with me. The doctor first asked me to rate my pain on a scale of 1 to 10. I was crying and yelling out in pain, and at that moment I had yelled an expletive. (so my reply sounded like FU**!!!) The doctor responded with oh so on a pain scale, you feel like fu**?? He then began to explain my medical condition of what a blighted ovum meant. I just assumed he was speaking to me; I responded, I know what a blighted ovum is. He then told me he was explaining the term to his medical student. (Who was with him.) He seemed more concerned at that point of giving explanations to the medical student, instead of talking to me; the patient, about what was going on/what he was going to do to help me. As he was in the middle of explaining to the medical student what a blighted ovum meant, he couldnt remember one of the key terms of this discussion, and had to turn and ask his medical student, what is that called again..you know.the UTERUS!! Yeah thats it. He let out a little chuckle. He then continued with his explanation what a blighted ovum was to the medical student: You see, she has a blighted ovum.it was never even a pregnancy. I begged to differ, as I lay there in physical and mental agony of losing my first pregnancy. (From a crude search on the internet, you can find the definition of blighted ovum. Somehow though, this doctor did not know what a uterus or blighted ovum meant. ) (Blighted Ovum is an early pregnancy failure which results in a miscarriage)

After a nurse came in and gave me some medicine to help with my pain, the doctor came back in to check on the situation. He turned off the overhead lights, and announced he would need to do a pelvic exam. I under the impression that an exam meant he was just going to examine me and look. (If you look up the word examine in the dictionary, it means: to observe carefully or critically inspect) He did not explain what he had planned to do. I received the instructions from the doctor: do the froggy with your legs. The next thing I knew, he was shoving his hand inside me. The pain sent me almost through he ceiling, and I screamed out: OOOOOOUUUUCH!! With that, he only removed his hand so he could quickly jam it back in at a different angle. Again, I screamed out in pain- this time louder. OOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUCH!! When he was finished, I received no sort of apologyhe only commented: Yeah, that uterus is really far up there.

I made it clear to the doctor that I wanted an emergency D&C done. He asked who my doctor was, then said he would call Dr. Lennon to see if she would do my D&C. He returned, said he had gotten a hold of her, and not to worry because she was crabby; but not mad at me. I said, What do you mean, she is not mad at me..Im going to be mad at her if she doesnt come down here and help me.  He then said that she refused to do a D&C on me, but said that I could go over to her office and see her during her normal appointment times. I asked what he meant by that; how exactly he expected me to go to her office on the other side of the hospital when I couldnt even walk and had to be carried earlier by my husband. He responded that it wasnt that far. (It is in a separate building separated by a parking garage, the main hospital, and an additional 2 parking lots.) I asked if he could please find another doctor to do my D&C because I was in SO much pain; even with the morphine and lortabs I could barely hold a conversation without gasping. He said no, I do not feel comfortable putting you under the care of different doctor other than your primary doctor. He then told me that there was nothing else they could do, and that I had to leave. I begged and pleaded with him to let me stay. I could not go back home because I was in SO much pain. I was concerned that once the morphine wore off, my 8 on the scale of 1-10 would shoot back up to being unbearable. I was just getting the point I could talk and not cry. He said that it was against the hospitals policy to let a patient stay for pain management because that is easily done from home I asked (as well as my Mom) how he was going to manage my pain, if I was at home and not at the hospital. He said he would call in a prescription- an anti-inflammatory (Motrin) and that would help. I kept arguing, and then he said, you just told me that your pain was at a 8as if my pain level going down to an 8 was an indicator of success
The doctor told me that my primary care physician, Dr. Lennon would be waiting to see me in her office once I left the ER. The nurse then gave me directions to put my clothes back on. I did not see the point of going to see Dr. Lennon at her office just to talk. I needed her to do a D&C, and if she refused, I had no option but just to go home now. Staying at the ER for my pain management was not an option, as it was clearly stated to me that it was against the hospitals policy. 

I somehow managed with the help of my husband and mom to get back in the car and make it home. I returned to my fetal position on my bed to tough out the next few hours of tremendous pain and agony. All I could do was just take it a breath at a time. If I thought more past the next breath I was taking, I could feel the walls collapsing in like I was about to die. There was a tremendous amount of blood. I didnt make it to the toilet several times before a wall of blood ran down my legs and onto the floor. _


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## Vinushka

That seems pretty similar to what I went through in September last year except I didn't really see a doctor or nurse at all after they'd shoved a drip in my arm and put me in a corner to get on with it "Naturally" as it were. Mine was an infection rather than a blighted ovum, and I got sent home the next day with a prescription for some antibiotics and a "coping with loss" flier. :3


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## ninamama

My lord, that is terrible! I am so sorry for your loss hun. I would write a full complaint to the hospital. I did when they missed my ectopic. Its Shocking how poorly we are treated by medical staff. My story was more neglect, yours is quite brutal. Hugs...


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## Razcox

So sorry they were so uncaring, as awful as it was i'm afraid it seems to be the way they deal with things. With my first MMC at 11 weeks i went through this after being told it was going to be a worse more painful period type thing (yeah right!). I rang the midwife (well my husband did) as i was in huge amounts of pain which was making me be sick and on the edge of passing out. All she said was it was going to hurt and had i tried a hot water bottle!!! I swear if the silly cow had been in the room i would have smacked her! I was about to go to A & E when i passed the sac and everything died down after hours of blinding agony.

This time again after a MMC at 11 weeks i was a bit more prepared for the pain and managed to get through the first 1 1/2 hours ok ( i was armed with all sorts of pain killers) then i hit a wall and the blood was pouring out of me which scared the crap out of me. After another hour or so again i passed the sac and the pain died down to more normal period type pains. I was still bleeding alot though and this didnt die down for the next few hours. Feeling dizzy and sick we decided to go to A & E. The nurses were lovely but the doctors where a waste of time. They stuck me in a room in A & E while they decided what to do as there were no beds. I had a drip put in and bloods taken and then was left alone for hours, a gyno doctor came and checked me out taking more bloods and decided i should stay over night. Also had the pelvic exam and swabs taken with out anyone explaining why and the doctor got the metal thingy they open your cervix with stuck. That hurt pulling that out!

Another few hours passed and i got fed up - my drip was finished and i still didnt have a bed so i went home. It was 3am and they wanted me to wait another 45mins to get a bed in the head and neck ward but i really had had enough.

It seems the medical world really dont view MC as a big deal and are so lacks a dasiy about our care while we go through it!


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## kaths101

that sounds wrong to me. Im sorry you had to go through that!!

I had a mmc in June and the care i received was excellent, i had my own room and was checked on a lot, administered pain relief and was only sent home when I wanted!! 
The only downside was when i was told my baby had died they made me sit in the room full of smiling pregnant women as they couldnt find a priavte room for me at the time - that was awful me sat there in tears with everyone looking at me :cry:

I would definetly complain if I was you, he doctor should have also explained he was doing an internal examinaion - he sounds like an insensitive t**t to me!!! 
Hugs for you at this terrible time :hugs:


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