OK, so here goes…I’ve tried to cut it down as much as possible because it’s a bit of a long story.
Contractions kicked off at 3am on the Tuesday. I managed to use my hypnobirthing techniques but I stayed in latent phase of labour for 4 days. Was having strong contractions every 1 - 5ish minutes for the whole time, but only got to 2cm dilated. Had no sleep during those 4 days. Used Tens machine which was really helpful.
By about midnight on the Saturday I was in a lot of pain and completely exhausted. I called MLU in tears and they agreed that I could go into the labour ward to be assessed.
Labour ward assessed me and said I was still only 2cm dilated (grrr!) but they discovered that my hindwaters had broken. Because I thought they had gone more than 24 hours previously they agreed that I needed to be induced asap. I said that I wanted an epidural before the induction process was started and they agreed.
So, about 8.30 on Sunday morning I had the epidural put in and induction was started. I finally got some sleep and something to eat and I started to feel a bit better. But I was a bit concerned that one side of my body felt more numb than the other and dh said that one of my pupils was more dilated than the other. We asked the anaesthetist to check but she said she thought it was all normal.
Induction started off well, but then they started making worried noises and told me that my contractions were really erratic. They would up the drip and my uterus would go crazy contracting all over the place uncontrollably, so they’d reduce the drip and my contractions would tail off. They kept going though and we finally got to 10cm dilated and they started me pushing. After about 20 minutes or so, I was examined and told that actually I still had a lip of cervix that was in the way of baby’s head. They tried to hook it over her head while I was pushing but she was well and truly stuck. By now baby was getting distressed so they said I had to be rushed to theatre for either forceps or emcs.
Surgeon said forceps would be too dangerous because of the risk of cervical prolapse, so I had to go for emcs. No problem. I gave consent and was prepped very quickly. They injected the spinal block into my epidural thingy in my back. I turned to dh and said “ummm, can you ask them if it’s normal that my face is starting to go numb?” At which point all hell broke loose. Apparently, no it’s definitely not normal. It turns out that the spinal block anaesthetic had leaked into my bloodstream. Quite scarily, my throat went numb and I was finding it hard to breathe, my eyes went numb and I could hardly keep them open. Someone standing beside my head kept telling me to keep talking to them and to definitely not go to sleep. They told me that they had to get a reversal drug into me quickly. I heard my baby crying and was relieved that she was out and ok. Dh rushed over to see her being weighed.
Meanwhile the reversal drug was being pumped in which meant that the anaesthetic was wearing off and I could feel the procedure being carried out. At that point they discovered that my uterus wouldn't contract and they couldn't get it back into me and stitch it up. It felt like it was taking forever, and the anaesthetic was really wearing off now. The pain became unbearable so they put me under general anaesthetic. I lost 2 litres of blood while they wrestled my uterus back in.
Next thing I know I was having hallucinations that I was in the jungle. I finally woke up about 12 or so hours after the emcs and hadn’t the faintest idea why I was in hospital. I remember asking dh if I had been in a car accident.
After he and the nurses filled me in on some of the details, I got to hold baby for the first time and start breastfeeding. They told me that during the first 24 hours after the procedure I was at high risk of heart failure. I also later found out that while I was unconscious I had been in very real danger of slipping into a coma. Dh told me that the whole time I was unconscious I had a nurse constantly checking all the machines I was hooked up to so that if I went into cardiac arrest they could act immediately. I was also diagnosed with HELP syndrome.
I was kept in the high dependency/intensive care unit for 4 days while they monitored me. The anaesthetic and the reversal drug had caused havoc with my internal organs – my liver was fucked, my bp was all over the place and my heartrate was 150bpm for about 3 days solid. I was on oxygen, iv antibiotics, fluids, iv magnesium and potassium, and I was on half hourly obs. But it all gradually started getting better, and they started taking me off all the machines. They let me get up out of bed and shower, which was the most amazing shower I’ve ever had! Eventually on the Thursday night they released me to the postnatal ward (which was a nightmarish place all in itself!) and on the Friday I begged them to let me go home as an outpatient, which they reluctantly agreed to. I’ve been having regular blood tests and my liver function finally went back to normal last week.
The anaesthetist was really lovely and kept coming to check up on me in hospital. She told me that local anaesthetic toxicity (where the anaesthetic leaks into the bloodstream) only happens to 1 in 100,000 people and that I was just the really unlucky 1 person. She said that they’d never had it happen before and it was so rare that she had her colleagues and her boss and her bosses boss all turn up to the theatre to see it all happening. She did a talk on it at the hospital a few days later and is now writing a journal article about it to further the research into it and teach other anaesthetists how to deal with it if it happens to other women again in the future.
So, there we go. It was a total nightmare, but glad I’m coming through the other side now. I’ve asked for a copy of the journal article, and will likely do the Birth Reflections thingy because I’ve still got questions to ask. I’m a bit 
at being told that I am just the “unlucky 1 person”. I’ve done a tiny bit of research and it seems very unusual for it to just be “bad luck” and that it most often occurs because the epidural is administered incorrectly. Of course, the hospital have told me that the epidural was administered correctly and that I must have dislodged it when I was pushing during the induction . I just don’t know what to think.
Sorry for the epic post 
- there’s loads I haven’t even included, but aware that this is already a majorly long story! Well done if you’ve got to the end!
So, the point of me posting this is to find out whether anyone knows anyone else who has experienced local anaesthetic toxicity via an epidural during labour, and whether they pursued a claim? I’ll probably post this in the Childbirth threads too and see if anyone over there has experience of it.