Compensation for horrific treatment during a miscarriage NHS?

brunettegirl

lilymay1 wrote: »

Ok. Just so you know, if you decide to go down this road it will be long, painful, expensive and all in all a very difficult journey. No amount of money will change what has happened and you need to ask yourself why you are doing it. Is it for the money? Is it to stop it happening to other women? Or is it to get the hospital to admit liability?

Did this happen recently? I only ask as I can identy with a lot of the things you say, but with time they have faded.

This happened on the 1st Dec 2012 so yes very recently.

I want all of it, to make sure NO woman has to go through what I endured, i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy!
The hospital to apologise for their terrible staff
Staff memebers to be sent for some serious retraining or one in particular a new job nowhere near people!!!
And yes I want some financial compensation as well

I know none of this will bring back the baby and hopefully in time I may persuade my OH to try again.

But to think that the hospital is just allowed to treat people in this way is shocking beyond belief and that all they have to do is say sorry and thats it, isn't really enough for me.

I have already submitted my complaint and they have acknowledged it I am awaiting a response which i am told will be in early Jan.

for the lady who asked if there were medical reasons why no drugs were given the answer is none that i am aware of. I myself can have all drugs (no allergies or anything) they managed to inject me with the womb contracting stuff to see if that would help the cord out, so she could of injected morphine at the same time....

No I have no evidence that is the reason the cord got stuck, but i know i am very tight and my muscles go into overdrive when i am stressed/ upset to give an example, when younger i had an ankle injury, they injected my leg (thigh) with pain relief I had tensed my muscles that much it all shot back out again! I did advise ALL the staff I was a complete wuss when it comes to pain and wanted lots of drugs from the begining and EVERYONE i spoke to said I could have all of them the mkidwife exact words were - "we will happily drug you up to the eyeballs if it helps"

NAR

OP was your procedure explained to you, including what all could go wrong? Did you sign anything agreeing that the procedure could take place (I know this is a probably not, but just asking anyway).
There will be a record in your notes of what pain relief was provided and when. This may be of use to you if you decide to pursue a claim, but neglect may be very difficult to prove.

dundeediva

OP I dont know about compaints with NHS etc or even any useful advice. Its ounds like the other posters have advised some organisations which may help. I just wanted to say I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope you are getting the support you need from your oh/friends/family. <<hugs>>

janninew

Hi OP,

I'm really very sorry to hear what a terrible ordeal you have been through.

My experience with the NHS hasn't been brilliant either and included a near fatal overdoes on my 27 week gestation baby which put her into cardiac arrest and many missed opportunities for the medical staff including Consultants and Midwifes to help prevent my very premature birth. I spoke to a Solicitor (my Brother in fact) who told me that I would struggle to get anything from the NHS and it would be an extremely long and drawn out process if I wanted to pursue it. I did put a complaint in just to receive an apology and I'm still waiting for this nearly a year later.

If its something that you need to pursue, get a specialist Solicitor and have a chat, they will give you good advice and tell you if they feel you will be successful with a claim.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

The only thing I can say that's different to everybody else is that there is no chance the placenta was retained because you were stressed. It's something that can happen at any time to anybody.

You need to make an appointment with the Consultant who you were booked under. If you haven't handed back your notes yet, take photocopies. Call the consultant's secretary and tell her you wish to make an appointment to discuss your mid trimester/late miscarriage. I'm sorry if that sounds cold, but don't go into great detail about your horrible experience with her, don't mention your complaints. Just that you need the appointment to follow up what happened. You're more likely to get the doctor talking to you freely without a member of three of management hovering over you.

I don't know how far along you were - if it was very late, which it sounds, the midwives may have taken some keepsakes for you but not mentioned it. I used to secure photographs in envelopes on file for mums when/if they felt ready. It may or may not be the policy at your hospital.

You can also check whether any swabs were taken to look for ascending infection, and if there is, get anyibiotic treatment for it, whether there was a rhesus anti body issue, any other factors that could affect you in the future, any issues which could affect your care if/when you feel ready to consider the future and so you have any answers that are possible to give you.

It is so desperately sad when it happens. It happens to many women. Sometimes there are no answers. But if you feel there are things that need to be said, questions you need to ask, then get in touch by asking at switchboard for x consultant's secretary.

I hope you get the reply you need.

Counting_Pennies_2

I am very sorry to hear of your loss.

I really feel for you. I too had a dreadful experience in hospital in maternity.

I agree with you about fighting to make sure nothing happens like it again. However, unfortunately, this type of thing happens up and down the country daily in NHS wards. The maternity services as many other in hospitals are all subject to opinion based on individual patient and professional.

I nearly died and yet they failed to recognised it in my complaint, and no amount of me reinforcing it over a period of time did me any good. One of the members of staff involved was even on a warning through disciplinary procedures for something else.

I would say by all means pursue your complaint, but don't let it consume you.

You need to grieve and you need to continue to live for the sake of your marriage and future babies and your own well being.

Use your anger stage of your grief to do what you can in this stage of the complaint, but when it stalls as so regularly happens with the NHS covering themselves with notes and supposition, please move on and get on with your life.

I know I am probably sounding cruel, but you have to look at your own wellbeing first. I know I was caught up in the pursuit of justice and it not happening again, but in the end it ate me up.

cr1mson

Having had a friend go through a similar thing before I met her and asked her for advice she firstly says Hugs.

Secondly to focus on what you want to achieve. She wished she had focussed on what she wanted i.e. a successful pregnancy rather than getting bogged down in seeking compensation.

The quest for compensation became all consuming for her and she now realises that even if she had been successful it wouldn't have got her any closer to her ultimate aim of a baby.

She also learnt things about clinical priorities which she found upsetting. Whilst she has come to terms with she wishes she hadn't known them in the first place.

She says to take care of yourself and your partner (she nearly lost him to due to her obsession with compensation) and look at getting counselling to come to terms with what happenned. The hospital should have a Birth Afterthoughts service or if you don't trust she found the Birth Crisis Network invaluable.

She did get her wish as we met though antenatal classes but she said she wasted valuable time trying to get something that would have made no difference at all.

Hugs.

C

Person_one

I would recommend contacting ICAS.

They can guide you through the complaints process and give you an idea of what to expect and what is reasonable as a response from the hospital.

Do it quickly though, I believe they might be losing their funding soon.

http://www.carersfederation.co.uk/icas/

lilymay1

OP. The hospital will never admit liability. They will apologise for your experience and that's it. As for financial compensation, you have a hard 5 year fight ahead of you. You have to prove they caused the problems and, from what you have written, it doesn't sound as though they did.

Women labouring with a live child will always take priority over those whose baby has died. Everybody has to wait to be induced if there are no beds available.

If you really feel like you were not treated with compassion at all times then you are quite right to make a complaint. But this is all still very raw for you and part of the grieving process is anger, and wanting to blame someone. I know, I've been there.

I don't often discuss the details surrounding my daughters death and I'm certainly not going into on an open forum but if it helps, feel free to send me a PM to vent, get advice, or whatever helps. I have been where you are and I have felt all these emotions.

somethingcorporate

We went through something similar last year.

The NHS can be completely clueless when it comes to compassion - they put my wife who was losing our daughter next to a woman in labour. It was utterly heartbreaking to hear the woman next door progressing whilst we knew we would be lucky for our daughter to even take a breath (and she didn't).

My wife was given morphine by a very apathetic anesthetist which made her sick and tired, so not a great choice. I can give you a list ten names long of completely stupid staff who came in to the room and were rude, incompetent or completely insensitive - the first anesthetist came in beaming asking what we were having and whether we were excited etc had he read the notes he would have known our daughter was going to be stillborn.

We have a hundred reasons for both our prior and current treatment to complain but feel it would be a complete waste of time. I know a number of NHS managers and nothing would change except we would get stressed and frustrated.

Having read your post I think your efforts are going to be misguided. It was not the fault of the NHS that your baby died and I know how confused, angry and upset you will be feeling and directing this anger at them is not going to help you in the long run. I hope you try and find give yourself time to grieve over the death of your baby. It has taken us falling pregnant and getting further than we did last time to really start to come to terms with what happened but I am glad we did not get consumed in an endless argument with a bureaucratic monster that the NHS is.

It will take a great deal of time but you need to focus on what is important and that is you and your partner - do not get bogged down in a crusade for money - nothing will replace what you have lost.

Good luck.