To ask hospital to explain

[Weddingbells6]

My twins were born by semi elective c section 7 years ago. Twin 2 was breech so I was booked in for a c section 2 days later but they couldn’t hear a heart beat for him after I had my 2nd steroid injection (the standard I think if a baby is being born early - I was 36+5 which I know is good for twins). They tried to send me home but I felt something wasn’t right so I called a different hospital and asked if they would see me but they insisted I went back in and tell the midwife there that I wasn’t happy to just go home (I remember them being a bit shocked that I wasn’t staying to be monitored anyway) I was sent to theatre to have the c section early as it really wasn’t going to make much difference when I was so close to term and the babies were a good size on all scans.

Twin 1 was fine. Twin 2 was not breathing and had to be resuscitated with no cause as far as I am aware) Obviously it was a horrendous time for us, not helped by the fact that he was in NICU for a week and I had to push twin 1 from the maternity ward to the NICU and not once did a doctor come to see me where I was with twin 1 and let me know how twin 2 was! I just had to ask the nurses on duty when I went around there after pushing a heavy weight and being stitched up I was never told what time they did their rounds etc so I missed them lots of times and sometimes I was questioned why I was leaving the ward with twin 2 and it was upsetting having to explain that we were going to NICU to see her brother.

Twin 1 now has a diagnosis of autism. Of course this could be a number of causes but part of me can’t help but think that him not breathing for more than a minute could have caused this. When I read his notes from the hospital (only quite recently as I find it very distressing) it states that the doctor was advised by the midwife to use a smaller oxygen mask but (in the 1st person) they didn’t think it was large enough so switched back to a larger one. To be honest it doesn’t sit right, who is in charge in this situation? Surely to write that means it was an issue and it shouldn’t have been? I can’t help
but feel like they maybe didn’t get it right.

Am I unreasonable to ask them to explain why it wasn’t clear who was in charge and for a doctor to make the best decision they could without being swayed by someone else?

Of course it’s a very sensitive subject so I understand that perhaps I am not viewing this as an outsider would so will happily accept kind responses that disagree.

I’m not sure that you are correct here. I don’t want to get into a huge debate but lack of oxygen at birth (hypoxia) can contribute to autism according to research. I‘m absolutely not saying that I know that this is the reason my child is autistic but we can’t just throw around things that aren’t true.

I don’t claim to be a medical expert but I’m fairly sure my expert Consultant Neuropsychologist is…

“Children with mild HIE affecting the thalami and basal ganglia may experience a range of potential neurophysiological deficits including sensory processing issues, attention and executive function deficits, and emotional and behavioural dysregulation.”

As I say, I have a number of cases where we’ve successfully proved causation on similar facts.

OP must do what is right for her. Perhaps the best course of action is to engage in dialogue with the clinicians to determine what happened, or to seek some therapy to address her feelings about it. However, if she has concerns about the care received then she may want to seek legal advice.

(It’s worth mentioning that 80% of the enquiries we receive are turned down due to insufficient merit. We only get paid if we win so are not in the business of bringing spurious claims!)

@BumpandBounce

but there certainly appears to be a causal link between the circumstances of the birth and the child’s current condition
No. There MAY be a causal link. There also may be no causal link at all.

Is the twin with autism the same child as the one with no heart beat prior to birth?

This sounds more likely to be significant than swapping out masks

Autism is a strongly heritable condition but autism can also be caused by various issues at birth. Lack of oxygen, born to mothers with preeclampsia, unusual feral position.
It's not only always hereditary