What medical records can tell you....

So imagine my shock and surprise when going through my medical records from the d&c for Peyton. First my shock was that my ob missed. I am not sure how I feel about that. I know that it is a known risk. I am upset that the ER dr neglected to tell me there was this huge 10x6cm mass in my uterus. I had a right to know. My ob told him no way he missed. Well if your pathology report doesn't show a 13 week baby and you don't have that you got a 13 week baby on your operative report. You missed. Which is hard because my ob took such good care of me with Cate, Sara, and regular gyn, and the d&c minus the missing.

Next, at the very end of the file. The last page was an application for fetal death certificate. WTF. Apparently there is an obscure law that isn't known that in NYS you HAVE to provide within 72 hours a certificate of fetal death. Something like this should not bring joy to me. It does. It does because it says my baby existed. My baby no longer only exists in operative and pathology reports. He no longer exists in the image burned into my brain from that last US. Here is a certificate. A certificate that I had been pregnant and my baby died.

I have also decided to make it MY mission to let every woman that has suffered a miscarriage or stillbirth in NYS know about this certificate. The women that have let know are all calling for it. I called today and the nice lady said she would mail it to me today. I have also emailed the editor of our small town paper requesting to write an editorial on misscarriage and fetal death certificates. I want it to be anonymous. I don't want the whole town to know of my loss. I do want women to know that this is out there for them. Validation.

In addition, after consulting some websites, nursing friends. I have decided to take my complaint further on what happened in the hospital. I have drafted the letter. I intend to mail it to the CEO of the hospital, DON, Director of clinical services and quality management. What happened to me was inexcusable. I pay a ton of money in health care. Dammit, I had a right to be treated with kindness and respect. If I had treated someone like that, I would be fired. I want to see it changed. It won't be changed unless you speak up. One nursing website that I went to said that you could go as far as saying it was patient abuse.