Can I please ask your advice.
I lost my daughter in June, the diagnosis was pregnancy induced hypertension. But I did and still do believe it was preeclampsia abd they covered because they missed it.
Here is the reason (please bare with me this is a long post)
I had the perfect pregnancy until around 28 weeks, my feet swelled so badly that even in rain I was wearing a pair of sandals as they were all I could fit into. This is normal I know, but it turned into pitting oedema, it would take atleast a minute for a dent to rise.
I had what I thought was heartburn, it was bad from about 12 weeks, but by 28 nothing was helping, gaviscon, milk, water all made it worse! I couldn't eat, I couldn't drink, and I couldn't sleep because of it. It was so painful I would cry often.
I told my midwife of both of these and she didn't even look away from her computer, she just said it's normal!!!
Of course me and my partner didn't know any of this was so bad as we'd trusted our carers, and you dont find out your pregnant and instantly start lookin what can go wrong - although I wish I had now.
Anyway, at 35wk I went to hospital with extreme pains, they came every 2 minutes abd lasted 1.5mins, id had them for hours, first thinking they were Braxton hicks, and going to hospital wen they got regular and more intense.
They put me on a monitor and everytime the pain increased the babies heart rate dropped. They also found protein abd red abd white blood cells in my urine. Which they sent off for testing. (I didnt get the results back for 4 weeks!!!)
An hr later they put me back on the machine and the pains stopped and so did the dipping heartrate. So they sent me home.
At 36 I was sent for a presentation scan as the midwife said she was still breach and had been for weeks. Wen I went the Dr called me into his office and told me he was extremely concerned as the baby has gone from the top of the centile chart to the bottom, she is now very small for her gestational age. This was the same Dr I saw at the hospital the previous week, I reminded him of this hoping it would shed some light on the problem and asked if there was a problem and what can be done.
He changed his tone completely, all of a sudden he was saying he wasn't worried, it could be nothing, I was to just go back for another scan in 2 weeks.
My girl died the next day.
My bp was so high I was at risk of a stroke.
Throughout the pg the midwife always did my bp twice. Saying she didn't like the first reading but only ever recording the 2nd.
They said my baby dies from pih, that it was all to do with my blood pressure that day, so I asked if that was true how come she had stopped growing? Her skin was seethrough, she had no fat deposits at all, she was perfectly formed in every other way but she had no fat at all and wen I delivered her at 36+5 she weighed only 4lb 6oz, they said there was no cause.
I know they are covering somethin because wen I went to see the consultant at 6 weeks check he seemed to go over the top when saying it definitely wasn't pe, but he didn't know what caused it, he said there was a tear straight down the middle of the placenta, which on the form said 'can be caused by pe' he snatched it off me and said in a really funny way 'yeah it can be but it's not in this case'. I asked how he knows if he cant give me another reason, he said 'i just do'. The whole thing was ridicule and sounded scripted. We argued, I got upset, I told him I didn't believe a word of it and I think thier all covering something and lying to me. We argued big about 1 part, I asked how he could explain her being so small, he said unless he sees the 26 and 32 week scans he can't tell me anything, I argued because the NHS don't offer those now, and if this Dr is telling me that if he saw them it could have picked up a problem with my baby, and by doing so could have saved her life, then how can the NHS justify taking them away?
Later I got a solicitor to access my records. The same consultant had put a letter in my file - obviously thinking id never see it - saying how well the meeting went, how I accepted what he had told me, and that he was praised for giving me the answers I needed. ???? What the hell?
So, because the midwife didn't write any of my symptoms down, the urine test wasn't returned in time and the consultant letter was a load of crap, the solicitor can find no wrong doing on the medical staffs part.
Im devastated. I dont want money, I have told the solicitor this too, I want them to admit they did wrong, if they had just said 'look there is a chance u had preeclampsia but it was too late by the time it was picked up' or something like that then yes id still be devastated but id know, id accept it. I know these things can happen. But my daughter deserves the truth, she deserves to know why she died. I deserve to know the truth. And the person responsible needs to be kept away from pregnant women. By lying they are not just putting my health in danger (as pe sufferers you will know the health warnings for later in life) they are also putting my future children at risk if I develop it again.
Im so angry because I know theyr lying.
Im 10 weeks pregnant with my 2nd now and although I have changed drs and have a different midwife, if they don't admit it was preeclampsia what's to stop them missing it if I develop it again?
Im so sorry for the long post, but as pe sufferers urselves, u will have some insight into how things like this should be handled.
Thank you.
And good luck with your pregnancies. Xx