At 12 weeks pregnant (1st pregnancy) I ended up in A&E after being referred by my GP for an emergency scan. The A&E at my local hospital is tiny and there were only 2 other people waiting. Within 10 minutes I had observations taken & felt relieved that I was so quickly being looked after. But the medic called the ultrasound department and very loudly said "well she looks fine to me" - this really shocked me as I was extremely worried and anxious ....and convinced that I was losing my baby.
Skip 3 hours and lot of gushing blood later, and I was still being ignored. I was now having panic attacks, crying, hyperventilating and just so upset that no one was helping or telling me anything. It took my husband (who is the most laid back and calm person I know) to furiously demand for us to be moved to a private room.
When the doctor finally walked in, he said "So you're twelve weeks pregnant, congratulations"!! . He tried to do an examination 3 times but couldn't due to the amount of constant gushing blood & clots. The light in the room was broke so he had to send someone off to find a pen torch and he mentioned that the apparatus to do the examination was old and broken. The whole thing was a fiasco!
He admitted he needed someone more experienced and said that the gynaecologist was on her way to examine me. In the hour that it took for her to arrive I passed the baby.
The examination was excruciating. I must have been tensing due to the pain and she was shouting at me to relax, she was getting very frustrated and started screaming "I'm small and have small fingers so you're lucky", "I have the smallest fingers in the hospital, this shouldn't be hurting". I was hysterical and felt so embarrassed. She eventually gave me gas and air. Once it was over, she said "I removed a lot of product that was stuck in your cervix. You've had a miscarriage" and then she turned around and walked out.
I had to spend the night due the amount of blood I'd lost. In the night I started shaking uncontrollably and was put on antibiotics for an infection. A few hours later I was in agony and asked for painkillers. It was 1.5 hours before I received them and the nurse apologised and mentioned they were understaffed. Asking to go to the toilet was received with huffing and puffing from staff. I felt as though I was a massive inconvenience.
In the morning a porter arrived with a wheelchair and said that I was going for a scan. I was shocked as I was still naked with my blood soaked gown on. As it wasn't visiting hours, I went for my first every ultrasound all alone. I was wheeled into a tiny waiting room in the antenatal department, full of happy couples! It was the most awkward and upsetting moment of my whole life. Sounds vain to say this but having that gown on and having dried blood down my legs, greasy hair, smelling of sweat - just made the whole thing 100 times worse for me. It was humiliating. During the scan they found a cyst. I wasn't given any information about the miscarriage, about the cyst, what I should expect going forward. Nothing.
When the doctor did the ward rounds, she said "you've had a miscarriage which is very common, you have a cyst, you need an iron test done in 4 weeks and another scan done in 8 weeks, don't try for another baby until after the scan" then she left.
I received my discharge notes in the post a few days ago and next to aftercare and follow up appointments, it says "no". I called my GP and they have nothing saying that I need an iron test or another scan .
I feel as though the hospital experience made my miscarriage 1000 times worse. I have no faith in the NHS and the thought of ever stepping foot in a hospital again fills me with dread.
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Miscarriage/pregnancy loss
Terrible Hospital Experience
32 replies
ForeverHopeful21 · 03/04/2017 12:08
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