Is this medical malpractice, and do I have a case against the hospital?

[celeste]

I went to the hospital and I was 37 weeks pregnant. I was having contractions, and in labor. I stayed at the hospital for 6 and a half hours, and the midwife that was oncall told me that I was not in active labor, and the pains I was having were not contractions. She sent me home, and told me to get in a warm bath to help with the pains. I asked her for another dr, and she told me no. I asked her to at least call another dr and get another opinion, and she told me no, she did not have to. So, I went home, and an hour and a half later I had my baby over my toilet at home. My daughter is fine now, but we have to watch her extra close because she was supposed to get an antibiotics during delivery and didn't get them. She had difficulty with her body temperatere because of her lack of oxygen directly after birth. We have now got that regulated. She is at a much higher risk of resperatory infections as well. As for me, I am dealing with anxiety issues, and a kind of depression that I have never experienced. THe stress of the whole situation is really taking a toll on me mentally.

After some research, I found out that the midwife at the hospital is not a licensed midwife in Texas (that is where we live). We had an unqualified person in charge of our care, and she could have really injured, or even fatally harmed me and my new baby.

Who is responsible for this? The hospital or the 'midwife"? I tried to talk to the people at the hospital, but they won't talk to me about this. It is so frusterating!! I want some sort of explaination, or appology or something!! What should I do? What Can I do?

[erwin]

yup, call an ambulance-chaser like John Edwards, I hear he's looking for work.

[koltin]

I know that Hospitals make mistakes in hiring but It is really hard to believe that they have a midwife working and giving out advise that is not license, but if this is true you need to contact an attorney that specialized in Medical Mal-practice, ask around I am sure you can find one. This will be a great law suit. Unauthorized person giving out medical advise, the hospital would owe you millions.

[burdett]

I'm guessing you live in a rural area where it's not uncommon to have midwives on hospital staffs and deliver children. If that's so, the hospital would not be negligent for using one. However, it would surprise me if it was common practice to use unlicensed midwives. But you would still have to show that a licensed midwife would have kept you in the hospital. 6 hours is obviously long enough to time the contractions and note whether they are becoming more intense. You have enough to talk to someone about a claim.

[jung-hwa75]

yes i would begin to get all your medical records from the hospital what you need to do is have your primary dr get your records from the hospital throughout your whole pregnancy he will have you sign a release both party's are responsible the midwife and the hospital
if you want an apology talk to the president of the hospital and let them know you are not happy with everything that has happened and you want to know who can handle this try the department of health and hospitals in texas it is ran by state call your local government to get the numbers and get the ball rolling