Woman forced to carry dead fetus for a week

Grimmlok · October 14th, 2006, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Friday October 13, 2006
An Alberta woman is blaming a backlogged health care system for a heartbreaking health crisis she recently had to endure.
Anita Hellum of Hinton, Alta. miscarried at 18 weeks and was forced to carry the dead fetus in her womb for a week because she had to wait for doctors in Edmonton to remove it. She says the awful situation has left her emotionally scarred.

On Oct. 3 Hellum's doctor told her that her child had no heartbeat and because a pre-existing medical condition risked rupturing her uterus if her body miscarried on its own, her doctor referred her to Royal Alexandra hospital to have the child removed.

Hellum's doctor said she had to wait an agonizing week to have the baby removed because it was Thanksgiving weekend and there were other women ahead of her. Hellum wonders why she had to suffer so long in one of the richest provinces in the country.

"It's even more horrendous for a woman to spend an entire week knowing she has something precious dead inside her," Psychologist Pam Algar of Edmonton's Centre for Family and Health Psychology said.

Steve Buick, a spokesman for Capital Health, an integrated health network in Alberta, said waiting a week to have this procedure was not "abnormal" and wasn't due to growing wait times.

Women are often counselled to spend a few days preparing for the emotional trauma of the procedure, he added.

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_4377.aspx

eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

suede · October 14th, 2006, 10:05 AM

OMG that poor woman.

Watch some extreme pro-lifer will blame her for murdering her own child out of ignorance of her pre-existing health condition.

twitchy · October 14th, 2006, 10:22 AM

"preparing for the emotional trauma"????????? Did the little prick mean to say "prolonging"? Does he really think that the procedure is more traumatic than the death of her child?. Just because something isn't "abnormal" doesn't make it right. That poor woman.

Damn I hate the Royal Alex. I lived in Edmonton for a couple of years when my husband worked there and I took the tour of the hospital with other prospective parents when I was expecting my daughter. I refused to give birth there after that.

sweetrebel · October 14th, 2006, 11:16 AM

I had 2 miscarriages before I had my oldest daughter, and with the second one, I was bleeding heavily and cramping but my pregnancy test still was positive. The doctor sent me home and made me come back daily until I didn't have a positive pregnancy test...that was difficult. I knew I was losing another baby and just had to wait for it to happen. Apparently he couldn't (wouldn't) do a DNC when I was technically still pregnant...?

moomies · October 14th, 2006, 11:25 AM

I'm gonna move back to Japan when I have my baby...this kinda shit ain't gonna happen to me, I won't allow it to happen!!!!!!!!!!!!

Delphinium · October 14th, 2006, 10:33 PM

Something VERY similar happened to a friend of mine. She was I think 5 months pregnant and the baby died, it was verified to be without a heartbeat by ultrasound. She had to walk around with the known to be dead baby inside her for about a week. The doctor made her go into labor (or miscarry whatever) before he would do the surgery.

I went to school with a girl who had twins and both died in the ninth month. They made her deliver normally.

Elise · October 14th, 2006, 11:02 PM

^^If a woman miscarries in the ninth month, I think she HAS to deliver normally. I don't think there is anything the doctors can do to prevent that.

celeb_2006 · October 14th, 2006, 11:16 PM

Man, that is horrific

Delphinium · October 15th, 2006, 12:42 AM

yeah it was horrible. they do give more pain meds than they can if the baby is still alive, but I couldn't understand why they couldn't knock her out for it. It was really brutal! The first one, who had her baby die in utero at 5 months/20 weeks, was a total emotional basket-case because she KNEW the baby was dead and she just wanted it OUT.

AliceInWonderland · October 15th, 2006, 04:26 AM

gawd how awful

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crumpet · October 16th, 2006, 11:12 AM

Anita Hellum of Hinton, Alta. miscarried at 18 weeks and was forced to carry the dead fetus in her womb for a week because she had to wait for doctors in Edmonton to remove it

Socialized medicine is the best, dude!

burnt_toast · October 16th, 2006, 11:33 AM

When I had my miscarriage they offered a D&C the SAME DAY!! I was a bit off my rocker and decided to wait to miscarry naturally, it took 3 weeks....the wait wasn't as horrifying as the nurses asking me to bring the fetus in for examination!