hi,
im new to mumsnet so this is my first post...I am looking for some advice but first I need to post a bit of background
My DS is now 9 weeks old. thank God he is well and I am alive after a very horrible labour and post partum.
to cut a long story short I had a midwife led birth. I had PROM and therefore required antibiotics, was not seen or offered any pain relief until I was 6 cm as my midwife was called away to someone giving birth in the car park. eventually i went on to have an epidural and then after pushing for what seems like forever they called in the obstetric consultant who very swiftly performed an episiotomy and forceps. I then spent 3 nights in hospital as i was so swollen down below that i could not sit down. eventually I went home and had 4 normal days at home
on the 5th day post discharge I developed fever and fast heart rate and had to be readmitted. I ended up in intensive care for due to septic shock and heart failure after collapsing with unrecordable blood pressure on the obstetric ward. eventually after 1 week long readmission i was discharged. thankfully my heart is almost back to normal on echo but I am still taking a heart tablet.
i am actually a medical doctor myself and i can honestly objectively say that my care for the admission with sepsis was extremely poor and fell short in many many ways. that being said I am much too rusty on obstetrics to comment on what the quality of my obstetric care was during my labour.
I let the obstetric team know in no uncertain terms verbally when I came out of intensive care what I thought of their frankly substandard care but I never heard the words I'm sorry or even any recognition on their part that they mismanaged me. i felt like they literally just wanted me to shut up and go away.
I have never taken legal action against anyone for anything. before anyone tells me that it is unfair for me to take legal action against the NHS as it is already strapped for cash etc etc,I work for the NHS. I have been a doctor for 8 years, and worked many extra unpaid hours to help a collapsing and overburdened system, and when I needed the system it failed me miserably. when i pointed out the shrtocomings in their care I could not believe how blase they were. I don't think they listened or took on board anything i said. that is why i have got to this stage of considering legal action which i have spent many sleepless nights thinking about.
My questions are;
- has anyone had experience of taking legal action and if you feel comfortable sharing that info, what was it like? did it take over your whole life and upset you by bringing things back all over again? how long did the whole process take? this is important because at the moment during the day I am holding it together but I cry every night when I see my son at the thought that I nearly died and didn't get to be his mummy, so if this is going to make me relive everything again then can I go through with it?
- with regards to taking legal action can anyone recommend a good lawyer? my initial first step would be really just to talk to them about whether they think I have a case because I do realise that I am emotional and someone obejctive needs to look at my notes. if a lawyer tells me we can't prove that breach of duty of care caused harm etc then there is no case for negligence and I don't want to put myself through that as it is just not worth ruining the 1 year off I have with my little boy before I have to go back to work.
- there is this thing known as birth afterthoughts which has been suggested to help me "get over" my labour experience. I think they go through your notes with you and talk you through things. has anyone done this and did it help or would I be better off requesting my notes myself?
I would be grateful for people's thoughts / advice.