Go you! I'm glad you have found us here on the MC board. No one wants to join this group, but it's a 'great' place to chat because people understand your experience. I hope something good comes from your complaint letter. Stay strong. xo

Update: I received a letter yesterday from Capital & Coast Health acknowledging my complaint and stating I would receive a formal response within 30 days (or notification within 10 days if this was not enough time). My complaint has been referred to the Operations Manager of Medical and Women’s Health Services. I also received in the post a prescription for something that showed up in my swabs… a week or so later! It came with a compliments slip which said (underlined) this is not an STI!!! (nice!).

I also saw my GP yesterday for the first time since the m/c. She was running so late that she called me in and then called the next person as well and asked them to wait just outside her door… almost as if I was only getting a bare few minutes with her. She then wanted all the details of the messy miscarriage and I was quite embarrassed to know someone I didn’t know was sitting outside listening to everything (you can hear everything… I’ve had to sit there before and felt sorry for the person inside at the time).

I expressed my dismay at being told to wait 30 minutes while bleeding so badly by her Nurse when I phoned in. She tried to give me a reason as to why she did that but it didn’t cut the mustard with me. She said if we could have managed to get a scan then I would have been sent in for a D&C in time but ‘unfortunately’ my body kicked in before I could get it (when it takes days to get a scan even with an ‘URGENT’ request … there is something wrong with the health system!). She took my temp which was ever so slightly up – said that’s not really of concern… checked my tummy which is still quite sore on one side… then sent me for blood tests and a repeat scan (at my cost I think). She said because I had finally stopped bleeding (yesterday was my first day with nothing… yay for me!!) that it looked like I was fine… she said the clot/product must have passed. I told her no it hasn’t… I have been checking!! I told her that the hospital doctor told me it might just sit in there and come out in my next period… to which she replied no that’s wrong! OMG who do you believe! They all tell you different stories.

But she is adamant that because I have stopped bleeding it is out. Lets hope so!

I bet your GP has not ever had a miscarriage. I stop bleeding and have retained products, first time waited until the second AF to know i was all clear, second time ended up having D&C due to the retained products and other symptoms awry, third time, again was sorted by second AF (tissue finally out) but knew there were products that were sitting in the canal behind cervix waiting to come out (specialist told me it would eventually come out and not to worry - which was correct but 7 weeks after misc). Good that you will have the blood tests and the scan. Then you will know what is going on right now. Best of luck to you and Thanks again for writing that letter. I look forward to hearing about their comments.

I too am pleased that you are taking this up with the hospital and hope that they treat it seriously and give you a satisfactory outcome.

Your GP certainly didn't sound like she was very helpful. Am glad to hear you have stopped bleeding for now though, and hopefully you can get on with a 'normal' cycle with no more problems.

Thanks for keeping us updated - how are you doing emotionally?

I just wanted to say that if you're not feeling well and have some pain I would really insist they check again. I stopped bleeding for a week and thought it was all over and then that's when my major problems started and I ended up getting quite ill. I hope in your case that your normal cycle sorts it out and you can say goodbye to the health system for a while.

How are you feeling otherwise and how is your partner feeling?

Hi

I have just seen this thread and am gobbed smacked. I don't even know what to say to express my dismay and horror at how you have been treated.

My thoughts are with you.

Hey guys

I did a bit of research on that thing i got a prescription for from the hospital... Bacterial Vaginitis (or something like that) and apparently it can be linked to miscarriages. I also read on an info sheet that if you have had previous pre-term rupture of membranes or labour then for any future pregnancies you should be checked for it. My son was a pre-term rupture and labour at 34 weeks so maybe I should have been checked for this when i found out i was pregnant? I'll be asking to be checked if I get pregnant again thats for sure.

I was all excited that i had finally stopped bleeding... 7 days later it's back again The doctor has said to wait and see if it goes longer then a normal period.

Oh and blood tests came back with LOW iron (was i surprised... no!) so they waited 4 weeks before FINALLY giving me some iron tablets. I had started taking some multi vitamins with iron to try and pep myself back up but now I have the real mc'coy

My Hcg levels are back below 5 so thats got to be good i think. I even wonder if my body just kicked into overdrive and started my period again? Probably not but who knows. But Pudding i'll be watching for ANYTHING that seems out of the ordinary... esp with what you told me.

As for the enotional side of things I still have my down days when nothing is ever going to be right again but generally i'm doing pretty good (I think). It doesn't help that the after effects just won't go away... it's like a constant reminder of what happened and still leaves a little bit of worry in my mind. I have been really short-fused lately but i know thats just cause i'm so tired from low iron (i've had that before).

Still no word from the hospital but when I hear i'll post it on here so you all know.

I can't even remember life before... without the doctor visits and prescriptions and hospitals and tiredness and bleeding... *sigh* being pregnant was such a high... this is such a low! Tomorrow is a month since we lost baby lampitt

Take care all you lovely people and thank you for keeping me in your thoughts and sending me messages xox

Oh right, bacterial vaginosis ( ) is one of the things they tested me for too - put it on your files and for your next pregnancy make sure you get it checked out nice and early on.

Great about HCG's being back down low, and hopefully this is just a nice normal AF, especially as you are at the 1 month point, so probably just a nice normal cycle

Glad to hear you're taking the up & down days in your stride, its all a hugely normal part of grieving. Keep talking about it, and look after yourself

I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it's your AF. I had mine 2,5 weeks after last MC and 3,5 weeks after the MC before that. I've always come back around the 4 weeks or earlier. So please don't pannick, just wait a couple of days to see what happens as long as you feel well.

Mate, you've just proven that the medical profession doesn't know their arse from their nose.

This is just shocking. Plus, because of all that you've had to endure, have you really had a chance to grieve for your loss? Everything else seems to have taken over, and taken that time away from you.

Shame on them!

I hope you're ok. I'm sorry you lost your wee one.

A month tomorrow... such a short time for so much to have changed huh.

Re: the BV - like you say with your history it's best to medicate BV, even though most MW's leave it untreated, as it's usually benign. It is linked to miscarriage, but from my understanding the statistical increase in risk is only significant after 14 weeks. I guess I'm telling you this because if you have it next time, you don't need to panic - get treated, but don't panic. It is horrible and unfair, but overwhelmingly miscarriages are not preventable. Nothing you could have done in all liklihood would have changed the outcome.

I'm unsurprised your iron is low given how much blood you lost. What is shocking is they have left it a month. The iron you're taking - if its the ferrograd, take it with juice or some other form of vitamin C or maybe kiwi crush because those pills do bung you up. If its the ferrograd-c don't worry. It takes ages to build your iron back up, so keep taking it until you've finished them all. Anaemia is also linked to miscarriage too, so don't skimp LOL in fact I'm sure I could find that driving on a Tuesday is linked to miscarriage - but I did get quite compulsive about knowing all the risks.

I'm with the others - I suspect if your HCGs are below 5, you'll probably find your natural cycle is starting to assert itself. It is so hard when the blood is just a reminder of your miscarriage. It is so hard when you didn't expect to have another period for the next year. It is so hard when you get your period and feel empty all over again. But this is a good thing - your body is healing. When your body is strong and well again, you'll find it is easier for the spirit to heal as well.

Kia Kaha for tomorrow

I got my period back 10 days after my bleeding stopped completely, which was more or less in line with my usual cycle, taking the first day of my mc as the first day of my cycle. I felt quite irrationally angry about getting my period back straight away :-( But I guess that's normal.

Something to watch out for - my following cycle I was a couple of days late (very unusual for me) which got me pulling out the pregnancy tests again. But the test was negative; it was just my cycle settling down I guess. To be honest, I felt a bit relieved not to be pregnant again.

The hospital have sent me a letter saying the best way to respond to my complaints is a face to face meeting. So now I am going to get an advocate... The thought of sitting down with the head of emergency medicine on my own is a bit intimidating!!

Am still pushing forward with my complaint though.

That seems kind of heavy-handed of them. Definitely take an advocate, and take a personal support person or two as well. If they don't want you to bring people with you, use the words 'whanau support' and they shouldn't argue with that :-)

Have you got copies of your medical notes? If not, then ask for them - you have to ask in writing, but this can be as simple as scrawling 'please provide me with copies of all my medical notes, (your signature and contact details)' on a sheet of paper and handing it to reception. I'm not sure how long they're allowed to take in getting them to you, but given that this all happened recently nothing should be archived yet so it shouldn't take long.

You can also get your notes from your GP (as well as the hospital) so you have the 'complete' picture.

I'd definitely get the notes before meeting the hosp - I used to work for a mediacl insurer and you'd be surprised what gets written down about patients sometimes. Under the Privacy Act people are entitled to know everything that's held on record about them, but doctors write notes for themselves and other doctors and don't always seem to consider that the patient may read their notes too.

That is awesome advice Megmeg.
Good luck with getting your advocate LBL - I think you're doing a really brave and important thing. My advice is to bullet point all the salient instances where their care failed you in super simple language. Something easy to glance at in a meeting when you're flustered.

I'd also bullet point questions to throw back. Hopefully they want a face-to-face to apologise. However if they try to blind you with science, you could have a few questions to answer patronising statements with eg: "do you have any protocols in place when dealing with miscarrying women?" [diff women diff treatment] "can you explain the inconsistencies in information and treatement in my case - that is a case of same woman diff treatment". etc. You can be powerful and take control of the meeting by asking questions of them. Keep thinking of them like mechanics - you might not know anything about cars, but you don't let them fudge with unnneccessary terminology. Pin them down, ask them to use plain language, ask them to explain what they mean. They can't gloss over things with fancy medical terms if you don't let them.

You go girl!

I went to my meeting with Wellington Hospital today and:

They apologised for the treatment I received and admitted that it was wrong and it should not have happened. I got an apology from each department.

They are going to
• Speak to the ER Doc who I first saw and tell her how inappropriate her treatment was and discuss providing privacy for patients and treating people with respect and dignity. They will email me when that has been done.
• Set a new policy where patients (specifically acute women patients) come under one consultant from start to finish to avoid the cross communication issues that arose in my case. That is already underway.
• Set new standard procedures for women presenting with bleeding during pregnancy to make sure everyone gets the right care from beginning to end regardless of where they present and who they are treated by. This will be worked on by ED and Women’s Clinic together.
• Create a new information sheet for women sent away with threatened miscarriages so they know what to expect and know when things happens that are not normal or expected… and when and how to get help. They will send me the draft to read and offered to let me have input if I thought anything was missing.
• Staff will have training from the advocacy service about the patients code of rights to ensure they are aware of how they should be treating people and so they know that they are legally obliged to adhere to the code.

They discussed the fact that a lot of the ‘ultrasound scanning’ issues were due to the strike action that was underway at the time but that it is no excuse.
They admitted that they could not find the results of the swabs that were taken on my first visit and they do not know why.
They agreed that it was not good enough to just post the script out to me for my antibiotics especially considering the strict regime required.
They discussed the inappropriate and ineffective communication throughout my treatment and the changes that need to be made. The advocate asked that they bring it up in future staff meetings.
They discussed how the standard of treatment patients receive seems to depend on who you get, what time of the day it is etc and that shouldn’t be happening. They said they need to know when situations like this arise so the people involved can be spoken to and have training if required to make sure future patients are not subject to the same treatment.

In summary: I got my apology from all departments involved, I was informed of actual actions that will be taken to avoid future patients receiving the same treatment and will see confirmation of this when they take place. Also hospital staff will receive more training about patient care and the code of rights.

They thanked me for taking the time to complain and for clearly showing breaches in the code of rights.


Worth the time and effort… I think so! I hope it makes someone elses experience much better!

Go you, I am proud that you saw it all the way through. More people need to stand up to help changes happen.

Well done! And good on you and thank you for having the courage to make a change. I'm sure this will be well worth the effort! :-)

Well done you! That was a good outcome.

Crikey. I've just read your very sad story. I'm so sorry for what you went through. Dreadful. If you lived in the USA you would probably have been able to sue them for millions over the treatment (or lack thereof) you received.

Take care