Terrible Hospital Experience

[ForeverHopeful21]

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.

[HCantThinkOfAUsername]

This sounds awful, so sorry for your loss op. I'm glad your complaining

[DancingUnicorn]

I am so, so sorry. This is not at all how you should be treated. I'm so glad your husband is able to help you make a formal complaint.

Make an appointment to the GP and see if they are able to recommend counselling for this in your area locally, or google a local EPU.

I want to reassure you that not every hospital treats people this way, it's so cruel and unfair that you will be scared in the future. I hope there are other hospitals near you that you can use. This is hard enough without this horrible experience on top. 💐 Thinking of you.

[April2017]

So sorry for your experience but in the most sympathetic way it's a relief that I haven't been the only one who had t go through this. 8 days ago at 9 weeks pregnant I attended my local A&E with heavy bleeding, stomach cramps and horrible lower back pain. From Google I learnt these symptoms were related to early miscarraige. Personally I felt I needed it confirming by a medical professional as I was in denial.. we had wanted this baby/pregnancy for so long I didn't want it to end.. I too was met by the same unsympathetic, uncaring nhs staff as you. In A&E I sat in the waiting area bleeding very heavily and upset. After an hr they took a urine sample and bloods and transfered me to the maternity unit. Here I met the most uncaring sho who examined me and told me my cervix was closed she wasn't to worried, bleeding is very normal and was happy for me to go home. It wasn't until my partner enquired about the bloods taken earlier that she checked them and said yes your hcg levels are too low this pregnancy is no longer viable.. with an appointment for the EPU in 48 hr time I was sent home where I passed the pregnancy later that night. My EPU apt came around I was asked to go to the bloods department get my bloods taken and sent home. No advice or support just uncaring staff with horrendous comments like "at least it's happening now and not at 12 week scan where u could discover you have an abnormal or downs baby"... the absolute shock of thier choice of words n how they so blatantly deliver the news to you is unbelievable.. I'm now 8 days post miscarraige still bleeding and still having horrible cramps and back ache and no advice if I'm OK if this is normal? Still feeling terrible and let down big time. I've written a very strong worded letter and it's going to PALS and the hospital chief executive. . I hope you find the strength to do the same so we can try prevent horrible experiences like this for future mums to be.

[Dreardre]

So sorry. This is awful. Glad your husband is able to complain-would be totally understandable if he couldn't just yet. He witnessed this; it was his loved ones.

[ForeverHopeful21]

Thank you for all your kind words.
Just an update: we made an official complaint directly to the hospital. The head sister in charge of a&e was very understanding and was actually very good at communicating with us. The chief exec was copied in and procedure means that he has a duty to contact us once they've done an internal investigation.
Part of our complaint was that I never received any follow up care or the appointments for blood tests and a scan, that I was told I needed (I have a 9cm cyst on my ovary so it's quite important). So, the gynaecologist who dealt with me whilst in hospital was told to call me regarding this, but unfortunately that was now 7 days ago and I've had no phone call. Obviously we're not just going to leave it, and this just makes them seem even more as incompetent as we believe them to be. Just so frustrating!!

I decided to take matters in to my own hands. I've been to see my GP and finally had my bloods done. I told him what happened and he was very disappointed, very sympathetic, and has referred me for the ultrasound I need. The results will determine if I need surgery. Thank goodness someone is listening x

[Youdontwanttodothat]

Thanks for taking the time to update. I know this must be a really difficult time for you. Glad your GP is taking action here.

[PossibiliTea]

You have done really well to get things into motion with the complaint and I really hope you get a good result.