Woman with no baby cut open
A woman was given a caesarean operation after mistakenly being diagnosed as pregnant, it was revealed last night.
The woman, 38, was suffering from severe high blood pressure.
The overweight woman was brought to Royal Darwin Hospital suffering stomach pains.
Doctors, including two obstetrics specialists, performed the emergency procedure - only to discover there was no baby.
The woman was stitched up, kept in hospital for several days, and later discharged. Hospital superintendent Len Notaras last night confirmed the incident.
He said the woman told ambulance officers she was 38 weeks pregnant.
"Her build was such that it was hard to exclude that," he said.
The woman was admitted and examined by two obstetricians and the registrar. She was given an ultrasound scan to confirm whether she was pregnant.
The woman then went into cardiac arrest - that is she "clinically" died.
Dr Notaras said the woman was resuscitated and doctors decided to go ahead with the caesarean section to "save the baby".
He said the woman's high blood pressure gave the impression of a "pregnancy-related hypertensive" disorder.
"Because of this, the entirely appropriate decision was made not to wait but to go ahead with a life-saving caesarean operation," he said.
"The decision made was entirely appropriate. "Given the circumstances, and if they were to happen again, they'd make the same call."
Maternity Coalition, a Territory maternity care advocacy group, described the incident as "an unbelievable state of affairs".
The coalition said it proved that a midwifery maternity care program should be based in the community - not in the hospital.
"Midwives are the experts in determining when the normal becomes abnormal, as this case shows," said coalition president Virginia Nock.
----------------------------------------------------------------
...freeze, comments on this one??? :shrug:
A woman was given a caesarean operation after mistakenly being diagnosed as pregnant, it was revealed last night.
The woman, 38, was suffering from severe high blood pressure.
The overweight woman was brought to Royal Darwin Hospital suffering stomach pains.
Doctors, including two obstetrics specialists, performed the emergency procedure - only to discover there was no baby.
The woman was stitched up, kept in hospital for several days, and later discharged. Hospital superintendent Len Notaras last night confirmed the incident.
He said the woman told ambulance officers she was 38 weeks pregnant.
"Her build was such that it was hard to exclude that," he said.
The woman was admitted and examined by two obstetricians and the registrar. She was given an ultrasound scan to confirm whether she was pregnant.
The woman then went into cardiac arrest - that is she "clinically" died.
Dr Notaras said the woman was resuscitated and doctors decided to go ahead with the caesarean section to "save the baby".
He said the woman's high blood pressure gave the impression of a "pregnancy-related hypertensive" disorder.
"Because of this, the entirely appropriate decision was made not to wait but to go ahead with a life-saving caesarean operation," he said.
"The decision made was entirely appropriate. "Given the circumstances, and if they were to happen again, they'd make the same call."
Maternity Coalition, a Territory maternity care advocacy group, described the incident as "an unbelievable state of affairs".
The coalition said it proved that a midwifery maternity care program should be based in the community - not in the hospital.
"Midwives are the experts in determining when the normal becomes abnormal, as this case shows," said coalition president Virginia Nock.
----------------------------------------------------------------
...freeze, comments on this one??? :shrug:
