I quickly felt an intense pain. And at a certain point, I just couldn't
get on top of the pain. I felt an, I can't even describe it, the pain across here
and in my shoulder blades. Just unbearable. Absolutely unbearable.
And what I now know is what that sensation was, was my uterus rupturing
And eventually a code red alarm went out and I was taken into theatre. The midwife
said to me I'm going to remember for the rest of my life the battle to bring your
blood pressure up, because I was in theatre for about four and a half hours
I think, four hours. And they couldn't turn it around for me and they tried
many ways of stopping the bleeding. But they hadn't realised I'd ruptured, even
when I was in the theatre. During that time I had, I think, 15 units of blood and
then I had another three units of blood in the ward after in the following days.
Because the baby was delivered at that point, he was really lucky, because the
rate of stillbirth or oxygen damage to children who've been born after a
rupture is sobering. And so we're really lucky to have walked away with a healthy baby
My overriding memory of being in hospital is how kind everyone was to me
And how much of a fuss they made at the right moments, you know and I just wanted
to say thank you to them all. And that was really important to me to be able to
send them a thank-you note. It didn't seem adequate, but it was something I could actually do
I think the investigation process was just clouded in mystery. I never felt
any of the wiser as to what was really happening and why.
There was no involvement from me, you know, the deadlines that we understood
sort of sailed by. And then getting this letter from a patient safety manager
outlining the code of candor which I think, why am i coming under patient risk,
what does that mean, who is this person, what's happened to the other doctor?
I didn't feel like there was much protection of my mental state going on
I just felt like I was put in a box which was victim. And was not really dealt with
outside of that box, so there was a process in their minds and I fitted into
it at a certain point and that was it. And I don't really appreciate that
You know some of the things I knew were incorrect, it would have been nice to be
able to say, but to have a more meaningful discussion, about why that was.
But it just wasn't the opportunity for that. It didn't take into consideration
anything the midwives had written in my notes. What I wanted to say was given
what then went on to happen, would you maybe reconsider the validity of the
midwives' perspective and then follow the documentation it's quite comprehensive
That's it, that's, that's all you need to do really. I don't feel that the
report that we got, it was it was fine, but I don't think it followed the values
or the the tenants of the documentation. I don't think it met the the aim of the
serious incident process. And I think had it done, we would have been left feeling
a lot more sanguine about the whole thing.
Michael's absolutely fine. He's extremely lively, and yeah, a handful and a half.
And I'm fine. I'm back at work. It's good, it's good to just be back out and getting on
with things. Yeah, I think we're both absolutely fine.