1.5 hours in triage and I was the only person there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I live out of state now and it happened between 2 am-3:30 am in the morning. The snow wasn’t a factor. Also the doctor said a few times we don’t know what’s going on yet and would leave the room. She probably was going back and forth but they could have checked my cervix and monitored the contractions. She came one or twice to speak briefly from the doorway. I told them the contractions were coming really fast and they had me hooked up to monitor them, but doctor or nurse wasn’t looking at the screen. My husband who was also with our other child was telling them I have a history of fasts births. I was trying my best to advocate for myself. Unfortunately, my doula and babysitter didn’t pick up the phone so we had to go to the hospital with our child and I gave birth without any support.

Were you not hooked up to the machine for NST/monitoring? They can review the output from that remotely, IIRC.

It’s irrelevant because she gave birth so quick. Obviously she WAS having regular contractions since she gave birth so quickly. Contractions aren’t the only thing the doctor has to look at. Op said the baby was born 10 mins after the doctor checked her cervix. Going from a 4 to pushing within an hour seems unlikely. She was further along then the triage nurse put her.

I’m the pp who wrote above about my experience at Sibley. When they checked me they said I was 4 cm and that they’d check on me “later”. It was about an hour later that my husband was begging for help and they said my contractions on the monitor looked fine and the baby’s heart rate (also on the monitor) looked good. They couldn’t tell from their desks that I was hemorrhaging or that the baby was crowning.

[Anonymous]

IMO it is very common for them to tell you you’re not that far along, gaslight you and tell you it’s going to be much longer than it is. For example, in my second birth I told them it would be fast, they told me I had hours left, then whaddya know, 8 was ready to push and no doctor was available and they made me hold the baby in for 45 minutes. And that felt pretty run of the mill. That said, in your case it seems like processes weren’t followed correctly and that’s worth reporting. I agree with the pp who said to stick to facts, not emotions.

[Anonymous]

Did you deliver at Sibley the second time around?

Anonymous wrote:Np here. To the OP, I was completely ignored at Sibley 12 years ago and it was so stressful. I was first put in the waiting room for an hour or more after my water broke because there were no rooms, and the nurses didn’t believe my OB’s warnings I would go fast. (I was 36 weeks and 4 days and had been 4 cm dilated at my 35 week appointment.)

They put me in a room and said they’d check on me in a few hours and, because of problems with their labeling system, they couldn’t take my blood count and wouldn’t give me an epidural without one.

I delivered my daughter about 4 hrs after my water broke and about 75 mins after I got a room. My husband was running around begging nurses to come in an apparently they said everything looked great on their monitors. He said “I don’t know what’s normal, but my wife, the bed, and the floor are all completely covered in blood and I see the baby’s head.”

The nurse came in and took one look and ran for the OB and my husband ran after them, leaving me alone. The OB arrived a few minutes before my DD was born and then spent a long time working on me to stop the hemorrhaging. When I would share my story people would say “well, you and your baby are healthy” or “lucky you that labor only took a few hours”. It’s incredibly hard that people don’t validate the stress of the experience. (There were actual mistakes too; like the nurses recording that I had an epidural. The OB only learned they did not right before she started stitches and went APE on the nurses. The OB also sent them for help from another doctor and got an ER prepped in case I needed surgery.) I was anemic for ages and still blacking out the day I was discharged. Our child, being a little premature, also wasn’t eating. The whole thing was a mess.

It took me a long time to not feel panic about the whole experience and was a factor in waiting to have our second.

Your experiences are valid regardless of the eventual outcome. I couldn’t figure out how to report this information to Sibley for them to learn without it sounding like I wanted to sue so I didn’t do anything.

For what it’s worth, my second child was full term and almost 9 hrs from start to finish. I got an epidural and napped through most of labor. They gave me meds to prevent hemorrhage and to prevent nausea (with my first the nurse just said to small an alcohol wipe and my husband had to empty his mug into the sink so I had something to throw up into.) They woke me up when it was time to push and massaged me and she was born minutes later. She also was a great eater. I didn’t have significant blood loss or tearing. It was amazing and did a lot to help ease the anxiety - especially since I was pretty sure we were done.

Unfortunately you’ll hear a lot of “well, eveyone was fine in the end”. I had prolapse during my second pregnancy and have had trouble with it since and sometimes wonder if I’d had any assistance during the first delivery if it would have been different.

[Anonymous]

op here. I filed with the joint commission. They don't seem to help with an investigation. they thanked me and said it could go towards hospital ratings. the hospital and my ob practice haven't responded to my complaint email. they are all talk.. just care about reviews online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:op here. I filed with the joint commission. They don't seem to help with an investigation. they thanked me and said it could go towards hospital ratings. the hospital and my ob practice haven't responded to my complaint email. they are all talk.. just care about reviews online.

Did you send a printed letter? Not email, but an actual real letter sent via certified mail so they can't claim they didn't get it. If you request the hospital address your complaints, they MUST respond (even if they say they did absolutely nothing wrong). If you send a formal complaint via certified mail and receive no response, report that to the Joint Commission.

OBs (and any doctor) in private practice are much more free to blow you off. But the hospital has to respond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:op here. I filed with the joint commission. They don't seem to help with an investigation. they thanked me and said it could go towards hospital ratings. the hospital and my ob practice haven't responded to my complaint email. they are all talk.. just care about reviews online.

Did you send a printed letter? Not email, but an actual real letter sent via certified mail so they can't claim they didn't get it. If you request the hospital address your complaints, they MUST respond (even if they say they did absolutely nothing wrong). If you send a formal complaint via certified mail and receive no response, report that to the Joint Commission.

OBs (and any doctor) in private practice are much more free to blow you off. But the hospital has to respond.

The hospital has finally responded to me. They made several calls to me. According to them, the nurse expressed feeling horrible but believed she had enough time to get the epidural going. It seems that another patient delivered just 20 minutes before me, which diverted her attention. This situation is confusing because the nurse had previously indicated that the ob would HAVE TO assess my cervix before I could receive the epidural even though she said she thought I was at 4. Additionally, the hospital mentioned they would address concerns regarding rude communication with the ob. I mentioned there are already 3 reviews online regarding this ob being disrespectful to patients and they said they would mention this to the ob. Thanks for pushing me to give feedback. I feel I have closure now.

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm glad you feel you have some closure now, and glad I was able to help in a small way. Now go enjoy your new baby and heal!

And if you read a post from someone in a couple years in even a vaguely similar situation, help them by sharing what you know about filing a formal complaint. I had no idea until I went ranting on Facebook and a friend reached out to say "this is what you need to do" and walked me through all the steps. And now I try and pay that forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you deliver at Sibley the second time around?

Anonymous wrote:Np here. To the OP, I was completely ignored at Sibley 12 years ago and it was so stressful. I was first put in the waiting room for an hour or more after my water broke because there were no rooms, and the nurses didn’t believe my OB’s warnings I would go fast. (I was 36 weeks and 4 days and had been 4 cm dilated at my 35 week appointment.)

They put me in a room and said they’d check on me in a few hours and, because of problems with their labeling system, they couldn’t take my blood count and wouldn’t give me an epidural without one.

I delivered my daughter about 4 hrs after my water broke and about 75 mins after I got a room. My husband was running around begging nurses to come in an apparently they said everything looked great on their monitors. He said “I don’t know what’s normal, but my wife, the bed, and the floor are all completely covered in blood and I see the baby’s head.”

The nurse came in and took one look and ran for the OB and my husband ran after them, leaving me alone. The OB arrived a few minutes before my DD was born and then spent a long time working on me to stop the hemorrhaging. When I would share my story people would say “well, you and your baby are healthy” or “lucky you that labor only took a few hours”. It’s incredibly hard that people don’t validate the stress of the experience. (There were actual mistakes too; like the nurses recording that I had an epidural. The OB only learned they did not right before she started stitches and went APE on the nurses. The OB also sent them for help from another doctor and got an ER prepped in case I needed surgery.) I was anemic for ages and still blacking out the day I was discharged. Our child, being a little premature, also wasn’t eating. The whole thing was a mess.

It took me a long time to not feel panic about the whole experience and was a factor in waiting to have our second.

Your experiences are valid regardless of the eventual outcome. I couldn’t figure out how to report this information to Sibley for them to learn without it sounding like I wanted to sue so I didn’t do anything.

For what it’s worth, my second child was full term and almost 9 hrs from start to finish. I got an epidural and napped through most of labor. They gave me meds to prevent hemorrhage and to prevent nausea (with my first the nurse just said to small an alcohol wipe and my husband had to empty his mug into the sink so I had something to throw up into.) They woke me up when it was time to push and massaged me and she was born minutes later. She also was a great eater. I didn’t have significant blood loss or tearing. It was amazing and did a lot to help ease the anxiety - especially since I was pretty sure we were done.

Unfortunately you’ll hear a lot of “well, eveyone was fine in the end”. I had prolapse during my second pregnancy and have had trouble with it since and sometimes wonder if I’d had any assistance during the first delivery if it would have been different.

No. I worried about what to do because my first came pretty fast and we were closest to Sibley, but I had so much anxiety just driving by Sibley I couldn’t imagine delivering there if we had a second. We ended up moving to CA when our first was 2 so the issue was moot.