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PROBABLY THE WRONG PLACE BUT AN UPDATE ON MY HOSPITAL COMPLAINT.... AND A QUESTION

16 replies

lissie · 25/08/2007 11:34

as most of you know we are taking action against the hospital that delivered ds and have recieved a letter today saying that they are still investigating and waiting for clinical information.

what does this mean? have they found something wrong? surely all the info should be in my file? (tho some of the facts relating to my labour were incorrect, stuff like they said my membranes were clear when they were bright green/brown)

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LIZS · 25/08/2007 11:43

Sorry I don't know but may be they have to access your notes and get someone to comment upon the contents before they can follow it up with those involved ?.

lissie · 25/08/2007 11:50

well we are currently under the recurrent miscarriage clinic so all of our notes relating to ds's birth are there.

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canmummy · 25/08/2007 11:56

sorry don't know about your situation but I've complained about my 1st 2 births at 2 different hospitals

I think they have certain time frames with which to reply so a letter like this covers the interim.

A complaint can take a long time to investigate as they need to speak to medical staff who are obviously busy clinically so try not to worry that this means anything significant.

BandofMothers · 25/08/2007 11:58

These things always take forever, so I've heard. This is probably letting you know they haven't forgotten you.
I hope it all goes well when they finally get round to doing something.

ThursdayNext · 25/08/2007 12:06

It may mean they are waiting for or assembling information from the individual staff members involved, or that someone is looking carefully at all the clinical data.
I think it's just letting you know that you haven't been forgotten.
I'm sorry, I don't know about your story, probably haven't been on Mumsnet long enough. Were there investigations such as scans that might be relvant? If so, they will review the actual scan rather than the just the report in the notes, so it can all take a while.

lissie · 25/08/2007 12:10

this is the letter i wrote to them.

Dear Sir,

I wish to make a complaint about the treatment that I have received at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on 30th April 2005

On the 8th February 2007 I was rushed to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital with an ectopic pregnancy, this caused my fallopian tube to rupture and I needed Laproscopic surgery, but it was not possible to save either the fallopian tube or the pregnancy.

The next day I had terrible pains in my shoulder and chest which were initially dismissed as gas from the surgery, however I had a drain attached which was showing a significant loss of blood and my HB levels were dropping quite rapidly. I began to feel worse and worse until it was decided that I needed an exploratory operation to find the cause of these problems.

When I woke up following this operation the surgeon told me that my bladder had been accidentally cut during the previous surgery. This was because my bladder had not been put back in the correct position during my emergency caesarean section on the 30th April 2005.

The caesarean was carried out at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital following several failed induction attempts. At 5? 1? and a size 6 I was aware that I was carrying a large baby and was informed by a midwife at The Princess Royal Hospital on the 26th April 2005 when I was referred with Pre-eclampsia that a scan would be advisable since my son had tried and failed to engage. However at RSH I was told that this would not be necessary. I was given 3 doses of prostaglandin gel, at this point my waters were artificially ruptured. Unfortunately they were green in colour. I was then hooked up to a syntocinon drip.

After some time both I and my baby were very distressed, so my husband tried to find a registrar or doctor to assess our wellbeing. It was decided that a caesarean section would be the best course of action. I remember during the operation itself it taking three members of staff to dislodge my sons head from my pelvis, the back of his head was very badly bruised. My placenta was incomplete and had traces of Group B Strepptacoccus on it (an infection which can spread to the uterus through prolonged contractions). I was seriously ill afterwards, this was put down to the effects of the Group B Strep and I had been readmitted into hospital several times during the first few months of my sons life with severe stomach pains and recurrent infections. All of which contributed directly to the development of severe Post Natal Depression for which I am still receiving counselling weekly.

My general health has since been very poor and I have endured at least 5 early miscarriages not including the above mentioned Ectopic Pregnancy. I have been informed that my chances of conceiving and carrying to term again naturally are very slim and that we are not eligible for NHS funding for IVF cycles because we already have one child. I am very unhappy about this. I feel that the doctors were negligent in their treatment of me during the delivery of my son and I would like an explanation of the following issues

? Why was my Bladder Cut?
? Why did my caesarean go so wrong?
? Is this possibly the reason behind my recurrent miscarriages and why I have been unable to have another baby?
? Why were the Group B Strep cultures not found when I had vaginal swabs taken at around 20 weeks?
? Why was my bladder incorrectly positioned?
? Why was this not found sooner?
? What actions you propose to take in order to prevent this happening again?

I look forward to hearing from you

Yours faithfully

its been about 3m since we sent it off

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LIZS · 25/08/2007 12:21

sounds a terrible experience. It is pretty complex, with separate incidents and may involve several diffenrt personnel some of whom may no longer be in the same roles. I agree the letter suggests they are collecting information together to investigate it and to bear with them while they do so.

ThursdayNext · 25/08/2007 12:25

God, lissie, what a nightmare.
3 months since you sent off the complaint? That's an unusually long time, usually complaints are dealt with pretty quickly. I work for the NHS, and in my experience they are taken pretty seriously.
It is a complicated situation though. They will need to obtain responses from staff involved in both the ectopic pregnancy and the caesarian. Some of the staff involved in the caesarian in 2005 may have left, I don't know if they would ask them for a response even if they don't work for the trust anymore? If different staff members involved in the 2005 incident need to respond, your notes may need to be passed around the staff in order for them to respond as they may not remember much without notes to remind them.
Hope you get some satisfactory answers in the end.

lissie · 25/08/2007 12:27

thanks. im probably beeing a bit impatient but i feel that i've given them the benefit of the doubt for a long time and at one point thought that my mcs and illnesses were psychosomatic.

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lissie · 25/08/2007 23:11

reread the letter and we should get a response in 25 working days.

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toytownmum · 26/08/2007 22:35

Lissie - you poor thing

Hope you get all the answers, don't rest (as I'm sure you won't) until you do.

TTM x

pinkteddy · 26/08/2007 22:52

Lissie the whole thing sounds awful I've just read this thread and wanted to tell you about Action Against Medical Accidents (AVMA) in case you haven't heard of them. Tel: 020 8686 8333 www.avma.org.uk

AVMA are a free service who provide confidential advice and support for victims of medical accidents. This includes advice, medical information or explanations; help in getting the issues investigated; assessment of potential for obtaining compensation; referral to an appropriate solicitor etc. There is a waiting time before they respond but their help will be invaluable. Might be worth contacting them anyway while you are waiting for a response? HTH

onlyWotz · 26/08/2007 23:01

I think you should get some legal advice from the www.lawsociety.org.uk

here

so sorry to hear all of this lissie, how sad for you.

Makes it hard to do on you own, get some help.

lissie · 26/08/2007 23:05

thanks for those links, will contact both on tuesday!

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meandmy · 26/08/2007 23:10

if you get in touch with pals they can advise you on making a complaint and suporrt youwhilst going through the procedures the hospital switchboard can give your the number to call or cab will do similar job good luck

pinkteddy · 26/08/2007 23:12

Just looked on AVMA website again - that number may be out of date, but their numbers on the website on link I gave you anyway - sorry for confusion! Hope useful anyhow.

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