This is very heartbreaking but it also echoes a similar experience my wife had. It was UHWI. She wasn’t scheduled for a C-Section, we were aiming for normal delivery again. She went for her routine 38-week ultrasound on a Friday. The technician told her to see doc urgently.
Doctor was off the island and we couldn’t reach her (not her fault, just awkward timing). We checked with other doctors in our network about what the ultrasound results meant and were told that the amniotic fluid (I think) was low and an emergency C-section was needed...
before the baby goes into distress. We reached up to UHWI, and they didn’t want to admit my wife and the OB on duty didn’t want to do the C-Section because she disputed the conclusions from the ultrasound. Eventually we got a hold of our OB (who was still offf island)....
& she agreed with the ultrasound conclusion. She recommended my wife have an emergency C-Section. She spoke to the OB on duty who had bare attitude (including rolling eyes & sighs while on the phone in front of us). Heights of unprofessionalism.
She eventually agreed to give my wife a bed, but refused to do a C-Section. That was Friday night. The next morning she had bare attitude with my wife and forced her to walk to do her own ultrasound. She said that ultrasound indicated my wife’s amniotic fluid levels were fine.
So this justified, in her mind, the fact that she refused to do the C-Section the prior night. In fact, she wanted to discharge my wife on the Saturday. Our personal OB said we should fight and refuse to go home. She is going to get the earliest flight back.
We refused to leave and by the grace of God we were allowed to stay another night. Our OB came on the Sunday morning straight from the airport with her luggage and everything and took my wife straight into an emergency C-Section. Sure enough, the fluids were gone.
Even the anesthesiologist confirmed that there was no fluid left (or very little) and the child would not have survived much longer in utero. This was a traumatic experience for me personally because I was blindsided by the blatant disregard for the concern of the patient by...
a doctor that was supposed to “do no harm” and actually help. To this day I still get triggered by these types of stories because I could easily have been Jodian’s husband. I feel for him. That OB on duty could just have been having a bad day, but lives were at stake.
Note that I am saying amniotic fluid because I think that’s what it is called, but it is the fluid that protects the fetus as it grows and whenever the level is too low it can send the baby into distress — or so we were told. I apologize If I have the wrong name.
Note that this happened in 2010.