Undiagnosed Uterine Scar Dehiscence/rupture And Infection After Childbirth Resulting In Hyterectomy And Chronic Pain

[Twitchel]

Hi,

I know your time is valuable and I am so grateful for any help you can give me so I'll try to summarize this briefly:

april 12th - delivery of child with extreme pain between contractions, low fetal heart tones, rapid heart beat, etc. Doctor delivered baby quickly and she is fine, for which I am very grateful. He then sent me off to check for a pulmanary embolism, which came up negative. I continued to have a lot of bleeding and extreme pain for the next 48 hours(including a large clot expelled of 6in in diameter), but they released me anyway - no clear malpractice to this point in my opinion.

April 15 - called the doctor and told him of my continued excuciating pain, bleeding and sweating. He set an appointment for me the next morning.

April 16 - called doctor in the morning when pain became unbearable and I was feeling uncomforable waiting at home for my appointment so he told me to go to the ER. I went to the ER and they did a CT scan that showed "hereogeneous preseumed clot interposed between the uterus and bladder measuring 12cmx8cmx4cm" and "moderate complex acites likely secondary to hemorrhage given the location of the clot". The ER doctor said he spoke to my OB about this and they decided it was ok to send me home with 'symtomatic care' on my part, ie, return if I have a fever and don't have a bowel movement. They did not advise me of the clot at this point - they just told me I was constipated and that was the source of my pain.

April 16, PM - April 26 Called the doctors office AT LEAST once a day with continued symptoms(pain, bleeding, swelling, and later fevers, chills, vomiting). Finally, on April 26 the doctor did an ultrasound to check on the that clot they found in the ER(this was my first knowledge of this clot). The ultrasound now showed a clot/abcess of 24cmx12cmx8cm extending all the way up my side. April 27 surgery that resulted in hysterectomy at age 29(we wanted more kids and now have to adopt), bowel and bladded damage(still causing me incontinance/IBS, which I never had before), extensive abdominal wall damage(my abdomen was covered with gangrene due to the infection that grew during this time when the uterus was hemorhaging, which is causing constant hernias requiring surgical repair and my abdominal muscals have 'gone to sleep' in the words of my physical therapist), adhesive disease and huge issues with scar tissue(which is very extensive due the nature of the spread infection) that causes me constant, chronic pain every day.

Have you ever heard of such a thing? I have talked to 3 OB doctors now that say you 'never' release a patient with a clot between the uterus and bladder, especially and VBAC patient as this is clear sign of uterine rupture of scar dehiscence at the least(both which require immediate surgical repair if the patient wants more children). I can't decide what to do as you know as well as I(and probably better) that this can get very expensive if we don't win.

[Pennleah]

Rebecca:  Firstly, if there is a malpractice case here, the lawyer would take it on a contingent fee basis. That means, the lawyer works for a % of the outcome. It would not cost you anything even if you lost. If a lawyer expresses interest in the case and will not take it on that basis, go somewhere else. Understand this also: we lawyers don't have the training or authority to decide whether a doctor has committed malpractice or not. Your "case" as in any other requires us as a first step to pay a medical specialist to review the history to tell us whether malpractice likely was committed and whether that malpractice led to serious damages.  I do have a long background in ob/gyn related litigation but I don't know what the "standard of care" is here. That is, what the reasonably competent ob/gyn would be expected to do in this situation.  The opinion you have from those other 3 doctors is very interesting and very important to outline what the "standard of care" would be.  Imagine a medical textbook commonly accepted in the profession as that "standard of care". If a chapter on a problem like you had stated clearly to that your case should have been handled in a much different way(should not have been sent home for instance and immediate surgery should be done)and because of the delay you suffered damages, then technically there would be a malpractice case. But here are the problems a lawyer is concerned with. Firstly, causation.  Maybe even if you had immediate surgery there would have been the same result even thought the clot or whatever had grown much larger. Maybe the same surgery and same damage would have resulted. Therefore, the malpractice did not "cause" the damage you claim.  Next, damages.  Hysterectomy in a woman less that 30 is significant. I handled lots of defective IUD cases where young women had hysterectomy. Certainly worth into the 6 figures depending on age and other medical factors. But not worth millions.  A suit against your doctors would result in a vigorous defense, cost your attorney probably 15-20K out of his pocket and hundreds of hours of work. So the potential damages must be huge to get one interested. My advice is this: gather all your medical records. Get an appt with the largest med mal lawfirm in your area. Discuss it with the attorney. If they balk at taking the case, offer to pay for the "expert review"........probably in the area of 2-3,000.  Lawyer is fearful of spending that money and getting a report saying things were within the standard of care. But if the report supports a mp case, then the lawyer will take it from there. Hope this helps.