To still find this shocking and upsetting? Labour ward

[Bububu1]

When I was on the labour ward having my son a midwife checked to see if she could feel his head. She said she thought she could feel a shoulder instead and urgently called in a doctor to scan me to see his position.

I was panicking a little by this point, doctor comes in does the scan and exclaims he is feet first and ill need an emergency c section. Cue me really starting to worry and get upset. He had been head down for weeks by that point so I was really confused.

Anyway as they were all trying to arrange this around me, the doctor says nevermind he read it upside down, sorry he doesn't do scans much????! Everyone seemed to find this a little funny.

To me it sounds made up it's that ridiculous but hand on heart that's what happened.

After this, baby's heart rate dipped and contractions had to be slowed (which left me wondering if it was due to the stress I'd just been put through for no reason).

A few hours later son was born naturally head down.

Is it worth complaining about seen as nothing actually went wrong apart from me nearly being given a section I didn't need?

You've only responded to literally the one person who agrees you should complain, so I don't know why you bothered making this thread

I can imagine the shock and upset at the time but Doctors are only human like the rest of us.

But to make a complaint I feel would be completely over the top and unnecessary.

How long ago did this happen?

Don't they all? 🙄

What exactly do you hope to achieve by complaining? Be thankful, you have your baby nothing bad happened other than the fact you had a few minutes worry. Stop being ridiculous.

Congratulations on the safe delivery of your new baby.
Please don't complain.
Maybe send a thank you card to the unit instead

Sure doctors are only human and mistakes are made especially when people are overworked and stressed. So did the doctor in question and other staff apologise to you and say sorry for giving you a fright? Because that would have been the human reaction and I’d say the normal thing for any professional who has made an error to do. If so, then I guess I’d be inclined to write it off and think that they were being extra cautious/worried which is a fault the right way. If not, I’d be inclined to write and say thanks but in future could they remember this can all be very scary to the patient and say sorry.

For those saying the patient is ridiculous, is it because doctors are paid less than other professionals that you think they shouldn’t be held to the same high standards? I can’t think of any circumstances where a professional in another field - banking, accountancy, law, wouldn’t say I’m sorry after making an error (especially when no real harm has been done no they don’t need to worry about being sued.!) Don’t you think that the idea that normal courtesy and consideration shouldn’t be shown in the medical context is very damaging to the standing of the U.K. medical profession?

No, don't complain about this.

What would you hope to achieve by making a complaint, OP, and what resolution would you be seeking?

I think medical professionals are under a huge amount of pressure, and keeping a bit of a sense of humour about stuff is probably their only way of staying sane in almost impossible circumstances. I get that it felt flippant to you, but it doesn't sound like anything actually went wrong with the care that you were given... there were enough checks and balances in place to ensure that that didn't happen.

Mistakes were made when I was in hospital to have dd, which resulted in her having to be put on antibiotics for the first 7 days. Overall, though, I was immensely grateful for the care that was provided and for the fact that my baby was delivered safely, and I didn't pursue a complaint. They had already acknowledged the mistake so I didn't see what it would have achieved.

If you want to complain that's really only a decision you can make as you was the only one in the situation.

However what "lessons should be learnt" from what did or didn't happen?

Ok, so this is a good news thread.
Baby was thought to be feet down, turned out to be head down so a normal birth could happen.
When my youngest was a baby it was thought she may have an issue with her kidneys. She had scans and examinations, it was massivly worrying, nothing could be found. Turned out the first urine sample had been contaminated. I was talking to friends about it who were all OMG you should complain. My view was that this was the best news I could possibliy have been given, that there was nothing wrong with her in the first place. I'll take that over anything else.
People make mistakes and no harm came out of it.

I disagree with most, I'm not saying it's worth a complaint, but how any of you think this is ok, I'm surprised. A Doctor makes a mistake, not a small one, but kind of a big one, thinks the baby is the wrong way round, can't tell the difference between a head and feet. Really? And then says he doesn't 'do' scans very much. So he's not experienced. Not exactly confidence inducing is it.

Oh well. No harm done. Eh? Actually it was made to be unnecessarily stressful. It was funny? Not to me it isn't.

"Sometimes a worrying time is not actually anyone's fault." @TheDowagerDoughnut
No, I disagree. It was his fault! There is fault here. There rarely isn't.

Doctors are not sonographers. That’s why they have specific technicians to do your ultrasound scans who are specially trained in this (and also generally not doctors)
Hardly surprising an untrained person made a mistake in this instance.
No I would not complain. I would be thankful I had a healthy baby

If you aren’t happy complain to PALs , people need to speak out more about poor practices

It was a mistake and not like they did it on purpose. They’re only human. I wouldn’t complain. I’m not really sure what you’d get out of complaining?

This was hardly poor practice.

To be honest, that made me giggle! They’re only human and all’s well that ends well. Congratulations on the birth of your son - enjoy him!

I had surgery and was told my white blood count was very high the next day. They did more test and were worriabout an infection. My actual surgeon n saw me and said he wasn't worried as although the blood test wasn't great all other signs, temp, heart rate etc were fine. He felt the other more junior Dr's should have taken this into account.

I was really worried in that couple of hours. It was distressing. But I'm not sure what anyone can do about these misreadings or minor mistakes. They are kind of the deal if you agree to treatment by humans.

I personally wouldn't complain. It was a mistake, he made a joke, others laughed to lighten the mood, I assume. What would a complaint achieve really? I think medical professionals often use humour in stressful situations to try and lighten the atmosphere. I had cancer and jokes were made by doctors and nurses. I could see they meant well and were trying to lift my spirits.

This.

Nothing happened. The NHS is already on its arse without people taking up time with such non issues.

I'm sure they didn't find it funny but were perhaps trying to downplay the situation to put you at ease. Who knows.

Either way the mistake was immediately picked up, you got the delivery you wanted and all is well. Be grateful.

But the OP said in the very first post that the doctor did say sorry. That's not the point though. The point of complaining is that changes are made towards a specific outcome. The OP hasn't been able to answer a question about what exactly she is hoping to achieve with the complaint. Complaining just for the sake of it seems pointless. If she does complain, the service lead will have to take time out of their clinical day to investigate, interview staff and, in all likelihood, it will just result in a generic apology letter. Doesn't seem like a good use of NHS money to me.

That's utterly shameful imo.
I got the 'oh what a laugh' when they did the wrong mri x2
I have a condition that's going to kill me
Ha fucking ha
There's no empathy in the broken NHS anymore

This comment alday long

Sorry that happened OP, it sounds very stressful. I know doctors are under an awful lot of pressure, but that wasn't a great way for them to handle that situation. Not sure it's worth a complaint but I see why you're considering it.

Stress can absolutely slow down labour.