Misdiagnosed miscarriage - copy and paste of an article
ALL CASES of misdiagnosed miscarriage recorded over the past five years, as well as the cases of any other women now coming forward with stories of similar incidents, are to be reviewed, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said last night.
While earlier this week the HSE said cases of misdiagnosed miscarriage were “very rare”, about a dozen women have come forward over the last two days with stories of having been wrongly told by maternity hospitals they were carrying dead babies, only to give birth later to healthy infants.
The HSE admitted last night it did not know how many such incidents had occurred but the review, to be done by the HSE, “will determine the number of patients who were recommended drug or surgical treatment when the diagnosis of miscarriage was made in error and where subsequent information demonstrated that the pregnancy was viable”.
It is also now writing to all public and private maternity units advising them to put in place “immediate measures to ensure that the decision to use drugs or surgical intervention in women who have had a miscarriage diagnosed must be approved by a consultant obstetrician”.
Earlier this week, Melissa Redmond from Donabate, Co Dublin, said she was prescribed an abortifacient after an initial scan at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, in July 2009 showed no foetal heartbeat.
Before taking the drugs and by following her own gut instinct, she sought another scan from her GP who discovered the baby was alive.
A review of her case also found the scanner used in her misdiagnosis to be inadequate but it continued to be used for another six months. When it was replaced in January this year it was only by a “leased” machine.
While earlier this week the HSE said cases of misdiagnosed miscarriage were “very rare”, about a dozen women have come forward over the last two days with stories of having been wrongly told by maternity hospitals they were carrying dead babies, only to give birth later to healthy infants.
The HSE admitted last night it did not know how many such incidents had occurred but the review, to be done by the HSE, “will determine the number of patients who were recommended drug or surgical treatment when the diagnosis of miscarriage was made in error and where subsequent information demonstrated that the pregnancy was viable”.
It is also now writing to all public and private maternity units advising them to put in place “immediate measures to ensure that the decision to use drugs or surgical intervention in women who have had a miscarriage diagnosed must be approved by a consultant obstetrician”.
Earlier this week, Melissa Redmond from Donabate, Co Dublin, said she was prescribed an abortifacient after an initial scan at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, in July 2009 showed no foetal heartbeat.
Before taking the drugs and by following her own gut instinct, she sought another scan from her GP who discovered the baby was alive.
A review of her case also found the scanner used in her misdiagnosis to be inadequate but it continued to be used for another six months. When it was replaced in January this year it was only by a “leased” machine.
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