Nurse didn’t ask for my consent

[emmagreen481]

I had an early scan on 9th July at 7 weeks pg because of a previous ectopic pregnancy, and the scan lady I had was so horrible and it was just a horrific experience overall. It was an internal scan to check the baby which she showed the baby to me for literally half a second and after that she proceeded to perform an internal scan of my bladder, kidneys etc which took around 15 mins and was extremely painful. She didn’t ask for my consent to do this or to even have the student in the room. I was clearly in pain and she did it so rough, I was crying and the student asked me if I was okay and I said it was really painful but the scan lady just continued. Also when I asked for a picture, she actually laughed at me and said ‘yeah but you can’t see anything’ which really upset me due to my previous ectopic, on this scan I could see the baby in the uterus which was a big thing for me and my partner. I saw a post on Facebook the other day about ‘birth room rape’ and doctors not asking for consent to procedures and it’s got me thinking if i should make a complaint or not?

I would definitely complain.

-You did not give informed consent.
-You were in a vulnerable position so may not have felt confident to say stop.
-You were in pain and this was obvious enough for student to notice plus you said.
-It doesn’t sound as though it was all for your or the baby’s benefit but training. Which you did not consent to.

I have had internal scans done for similar reasons and The sonographers were very clear getting consent. For example, ‘I’ve checked the Fallopian tubes and ovaries, I’m just going to look at the ... is that ok?’

I've had the same type of scan when I had a suspected eptopic (turned out to be a cyst) and I think it took around 10 mins and was fairly uncomfortable. As pp have said even if they see the fetus in the uterus they still have to scan around in case you have a twin pregnancy and one of the fetuses is eptopic and has eg got outside the womb.

Sounds like she could have had a better bedside manner but otherwise sounds normal to me.

Oh and I didn't expect or ask for a picture as it did not seem reasonable to do so.

So from what I'm reading, 1) there was a student in the room and consent had not been asked for, nor obtained for this; and 2) as there had been no explanation of what the scan procedure involved, there's no way of being absolutely certain that the scan showing the student what was where was an additional extra for which consent had not been sought.

I'd complain, certainly. Not the best care there.

Complain! Yanbu

I didnt mean to victim blame - v sorry about that. It was due to reading other posts on here when a patient has said stop and the practitioner carried on. In those discussions the responses were very much along the line of withdrawing consent means they should stop so I was trying to establish if that was the case in this instance. I missed the bit in the op where this particular practitioner hadnt got informed consent for the whole proceedure before it started.

It's only in my 30s that I've realised - mostly due to these sorts of threads on mn - that actually I decide what happens to my body. I've had people disregard my boundaries my whole life from relatives tickling when I'd said stop, GPs continuing with a v painful smear when I said stop, and more #metoos than I care to mention. Victim blaming the OP was absolutely not my intention and I am v v sorry for my clumsy phrasing and missing some info in the op.

zeeboo is exactly right. I’ve had probably a dozen of those early scans and never once have they just confirmed a hb and then been done. They always have a look around to check everything else is as it should be. She was just pointing things out to the student during a routine scan. And I empathize that you were uncomfortable, I have a heavily retroverted uterus and an internal exam or u/s brings tears to my eyes, but, it has to be done.