What happened to me March 10th, 2006 at Fort Hood Darnall Army Hospital

Before reading my post, just know that any time you want a second opinion, or you have a gut feeling your doctor might be wrong, GET A SECOND OPINION, ALWAYS TRUST YOUR GUT! Doctors are always in "practice" Don't feel bad because you might make them feel like you dont trust them, it could cost you your health, mental health, or even your life or someone elses life. Please read the entire story, make a comment if you want to, comments will be approved before being posted I don't want any negative feedback. Thank you.

Fort Hood Texas. Darnall Hospital.

March 9th 2006 I went in for a regular ultrasound and obgyn visit, I was 15 weeks pregnant. I went into my doctor’s office, and she did a Doppler reading on my stomach to check for a heartbeat and she could not find one.

During previous pregnancies it was a little difficult to find a heartbeat with the Doppler because my uterus is tilted toward my back, so we couldn’t ever really find a heartbeat via Doppler until I was about 18 weeks.
She immediately sent me over to get an ultrasound in the walk in clinic part of the obgyn office. They put the Doppler on my stomach for 2 seconds and said they couldn’t find a heartbeat. They jiggled my stomach around and they could see the baby but not very clearly, there was mild movement but they said there was no heartbeat. They then sent me over to radiology because they said they had better equipment over there. They also said they could not find a heartbeat. So I was sent to Dr. Cortez, who then scheduled a D and C (dilation and curettage procedure that evacuates the uterus of all of its contents via a tube that suctions everything out) I required one because I had a miscarriage the previous year, May 2005, and was sent home to pass it naturally and I ended up hemorrhaging. So Dr. Cortez scheduled my procedure for the next day.

I had brought my friend and daughter and son with me to the hospital so my friend could watch my daughter and son while I got my procedure done. I walked past them while going to radiology and I was crying and I just shook my head no to my friend. I saw my daughter start to cry and heard her ask my friend if the baby was dead. My friend told her that mommy would no longer be having a baby. My daughter was very upset.

They had me come in on March 10th in the morning to get my blood drawn to blood type me and whatever else they needed my blood for. I found out later they didn’t do an hcg draw to double check to make sure my hormones had gone down. When I got the test back later after the procedure there was not an HCG draw. HCG is the hormone your body creates when you are pregnant. Human Choriogonadotropin.

My friend took me to Darnall Army Community hospital to take me to my procedure, I was waiting in the room with her, very nervous because I just didn’t feel right, I had all night the night before to think about my dead baby inside of me. My husband wouldn’t touch me, and blamed me for losing the baby, and made me sleep on the couch, he wouldn’t touch me or talk to me, he locked himself in his room and I didn’t even see him leave for work the next morning, before this had happened he would wake me up to tell me he loved me and kiss me goodbye.

The nurse came into my room to get me and walk me to the prep room, my friend walked with me, and the nurse suddenly turns around as I burst into tears and asked “did you want this to happen?” I was in shock, I asked her why she would ask me that, she then replied “well a lot of military wives end up pregnant when their husbands are on leave and they cause themselves to lose the baby.” I was like seriously, would I be crying if I had wanted this to happen?? We had planned this baby and were very excited about the baby coming, and then this lady had to ask me this as I was already beginning to be depressed about it. The reality of the loss was starting to sink in.

I went into the prep room, alone, the surgeon came in, he was some captain in the army, I don’t remember his name, I told him I was feeling very anxious and I didn’t want to die during the surgery, he then stated that I would be okay, it’s a simple procedure and I would be able to go home afterward. I then told him that I didn’t want to hear, see, or feel anything, I didn’t want to know the sex of the baby or anything. He promised me that I wouldn’t hear, see or feel anything. During the procedure, I remember them putting my legs in stirrups and I saw them administer the medication and I was then drawn into my “twilight sleep” as they called it. I could still open my eyes and hear them talking but didn’t really understand what they were saying and I could hear the suction sound from the machine, and I felt tugging, and saw the contents being vacuumed into a container, it was full of red. I remember them holding my legs and telling me I was doing good and I would be okay. I then woke up in recovery and they told me they had gotten everything out and I would probably experience some cramping and light bleeding for about a week or two.

I got there around 4 pm, they did the procedure around 6 pm, and they were done by 11 pm. I went into recovery for an hour, then to my room where my friend was waiting for me, her husband went and got my medications for me then they took me home. My husband still wouldn’t talk to me or anything, I just pretty much stayed in my room for the weekend.

They told me to do a follow up in the walk in clinic on Monday to make sure everything had gone as planned. Monday March 12th I went in for a walk in follow up of the d and c procedure performed the previous Friday. I saw Dr. Parnell, and she asked me if I had any cramping or heavy bleeding, I told her no, I feel fine, she asked if I had any fever, and I said no I haven’t. I then mentioned that I wanted to see about getting on birth control, but since I was waiting for tests results to see if I had factor v Leiden (a blood clotting disorder that could increase my chances of getting a blood clot if I were to take birth control) She said oh you probably don’t have that and wrote me out a prescription for birth control pills. I took 2 birth control pills that night like I was instructed to, but I was still worried about the test results coming back positive. So I called my dr the next day after taking the pills and asked if I should continue or if I should stop taking them, He advised me to stop taking them IMMEDIATELY! I didn’t take the pills again. A few days later I started leaking fluid down my leg, not a lot but enough to cause concern, so I called my dr, and he said that some drainage is normal and to wear panty liners, as long as the fluid doesn’t change color or turn red then I should be okay. It was clear fluid, that had no smell and was slightly sticky, I started to panic a little. Then TEN days after my d and c procedure I had really bad cramping one day and it was so bad I took 8 ibuprofen and I still felt like my insides were being ripped out of my body, it was the worse cramping I had ever experienced, the ibuprofen barely took the edge off, it would come in waves, and sometimes would last for 30 minutes at a time, I felt a lot of pressure in my vagina, I just thought I was going to start a really bad period. The pain subsided that night and I finally got to sleep.

I woke up early to get my son a sippy cup because he woke me up because he was thirsty, as I was walking into the kitchen, I felt something warm go into my underwear, I quickly got him some milk, then ran to the bathroom. I figured it was a blood clot from my period because I had cramps the day before, I went into the bathroom and pulled down my underwear, and I saw something pale almost an off white color, I picked it up and it was obviously my baby, the cord was still attached to me, I could pull the baby away really, I had to tug on it and I heard the cord snap. I panicked, I didn’t know what to do so I called my mom and asked what I should do, she freaked out and didn’t believe me at first, and asked me if I was sure it wasn’t a blood clot, I said no mom I can tell that it’s a baby, and I can see its penis, it’s a little boy, I started sobbing, she told me to take pictures of the baby for legal use. I hung up the phone and as I was getting up off the toilet crying hysterically, my four year old daughter walked into the bathroom crying and asking why I was crying and then she saw the baby in my hand, I put my hand behind my back and told her to go to her room! And she asked me if mommy’s little baby had died, or if it was ready to be pushed out, I told her that the baby had died, and that mommy wouldn’t be having a baby anymore, she started crying harder and yelled that the dr didn’t fix me and I needed to go back and they needed to fix the baby. I put her in her room and I went into my bedroom to take the pictures. I took three different pictures of my baby.

I called my husband to come and pick me up and told him what had happened, he said to have my friend come get me and that he would come home to watch the kids. So he got home, and my friend picked me up, I had put my baby in a plastic bag and covered it with a towel, because I wasn’t about to go into the obgyn office and scare the pregnant women in there.

I go into the doctors office and tell them what I had in my hands, and they told me to be patient and wait in the lobby full of pregnant women. So here I sit, on one of the busiest office days I had seen, pregnant women everywhere, happily pregnant with their babies talking about their babies names and heart beat rate and everything, and I just start freaking out, I asked if they could put me in a room or something and they said it wasn’t an emergency and I had to wait my turn, so they even triaged me and signed me in, and I waited for about an hour before anyone saw me. I was then brought to a room with a dr I didn’t know, and he didn’t really know anything about me or my case because he had never seen me before. I asked him how this could happen and I showed him the baby, and he said I needed to give them the baby so they could run tests on him and do an autopsy to figure out what went wrong. He had a nurse come in to take the baby, and she set a specimen jar on the counter and then proceeded to open the plastic bag and she was about to put MY baby in a TINY plastic jar and carry him away like he wasn’t anything!! My friend got mad and demanded the nurse leave to another room to do so, she closed the bag back up didn’t cover him up with the towel and just walked out of the room with an attitude and shut the door.
I then started asking the dr again, how could someone miss an entire baby?? He said, well during procedures like this they are done blindly and its normal for dr’s to miss tissue. But thinking back about everything that happened, the fluid going down my leg was OBVIOUSLY my WATER BREAKING then the cramping was obviously LABOR!! So I asked, how does someone miss the ENTIRE AMNIOTIC SAC?? And he repeated, well its normal for dr’s to miss tissue, I got mad and started yelling, THIS ISNT TISSUE THIS IS MY BABY HOW DO YOU MISS AN ENTIRE BABY??? They said in the ultrasound he measured as a 13 week fetus, but I was 15 weeks, and according to measurements I did on the pictures of where the baby was on my hand, my baby measured to be 15 weeks and had all the characteristics of a 15 week fetus! He kept skipping around my questions then ended up leaving the room because I was obviously getting no where and neither was he, because I could not express more that my child was not just tissue, the cord was still attached, my water broke and I had gone into labor and passed him at home when I was promised I wouldn’t hear, see, or feel ANYTHING and I would not find out the sex of my baby!

So I ended up leaving the hospital, no vaginal exam, no ultrasound, because before he left he said, well since the baby is out I am PRETTY SURE that everything is out and you can go home, since you don’t have any bleeding or pain, or fever.

So I left with no answers, still crying and having to leave the hospital without my baby, walking past all these pregnant women enjoying their time, and their babies.

I wanted to die.

I was frustrated and no one cared about me, the hospital didn’t offer counseling, nothing.

A WEEK after that I woke up in a pool of blood, my husband woke up in the middle of the night and had his friend take me to the emergency room at Killeen community hospital. I went to the emergency room, blood stained sweats, and waiting for about an hour before I was even seen, people were staring at me, and I was freaking out, I couldn’t breathe I just wanted to disappear, I couldn’t believe this was happening to me, my heart was racing and I was just a nervous wreck, finally I get called back there, they triage me and put me in a room, alone.

Bleeding, and bleeding and bleeding, I started feeling weak and thought I was seriously going to die, the dr came in and did a quick vaginal exam, the bleeding had subsided by then and he said that there was nothing else coming out so I should be fine, and without an ultrasound, they sent me home.

So I went home, and woke up the next morning and the bleeding was very light, so I figured I was going to be okay finally.

That night I went to sleep feeling weird, and light headed, I woke up to my husband calling an ambulance, and I sat up and I was once again bleeding this time much much worse. I walked to my bathroom in the hallway and there was trail of blood, the blood was just gushing out, my daughter heard us awake then she walks into the hallway and sees blood everywhere, and I was sitting on the toilet and you could just hear the blood pouring out of me, and the blood clots just dropping into the toilet water, my daughter walks into the bathroom and asked if I was dying, I told her no the dr just didn’t fix mommy so mommy is going back to the doctor, this time I was being taken to darnall, I figured it would be better since Killeen didn’t do anything. The ambulance got there, I was waiting outside because my daughter was freaking out seeing me bleed so much. I heard her screaming in the house I DON’T WANT MOMMY TO DIE DADDY!! SAVE HER!! MAKE THE DR FIX MOMMY I DON’T WANT MOMMY TO DIE!!

I get in the ambulance they take my blood pressure, which was sky high it was 150/100 and my heart rate was 145

They said they could take me anywhere until my heart rate goes down, so I had to breathe slowly and they made light conversation to take my mind off of it a little, finally my heart rate went down along with my blood pressure, it was about 5 am, I get to the hospital, I am put in my room they hook an iv up to me, and the dr comes in and does an ultrasound and sees that I have a huge chunk of tissue in my uterus still, that is why I was bleeding so much my body was trying to get rid of it but it couldn’t, so I kept clotting and bleeding. He said that the surgery room was full so we would have to wait. I was scheduled for my 2nd d and c, and they had me on monitors, and I started turning pale, and I asked the nurse if I was going to die, she said that she would have the chaplain come and talk to me, never answering my question, and she notified me that they had blood ready in case I needed a blood transfusion.

So then the chaplain comes in finally, I had told them I didn’t want to talk to him, im not a religious person and they sent him anyway, so not only was I freaking out, and bleeding a lot but I am stuck with this guy that I didn’t have the nerve to tell him to leave, I didn’t want him there, I was freaking out and didn’t really want to talk. It was now 7 am, and the surgery room was still not open, as the chaplain was walking in I could see the dr just bullshitting with the nurses.

So the chaplain sits down next to me and asks me how im feeling, really?

How would you feel if you had just gone through everything that I had just gone through? I was a little pissed off, so I told him, im depressed, im anxious, im nervous, I feel like im going to die, and I just want someone to tell me that im going to be okay, he responds.

There is no reason for you to be nervous because I was in much worse than what youre experiencing you will never experience the pain and torment I went through being in war when I was in a humvee there was a road side bomb that went off and almost took off my head! So there is no reason for you to be anxious or scared about anything dear.

I got pissed and told him to get the fuck out, I am sorry but you were supposed to be comforting me apparently but your stories were worse than mine so therefore I had no reason to feel the way I was feeling even though I thought I was bleeding to death.

8 oclock rolls around, they finally come back in to check on me, and they tell me theyre going to administer oxytocin, a drug to induce contractions, because they said it would help to cut off the capillaries and slow the bleeding down.

2 hours later, dealing with cramping and and more bleeding, suddenly I felt something huge come out, I looked down and it was a pale white color, the bleeding almost abruptly stopped, the nurse came in when I called her and she was extremely happy, then the dr came in and he was even happier, so he did another ultrasound and found that what had come out was the last piece of uterus they had left in me for almost a month. I stayed in the er room for another hour, bleeding had almost disappeared, pain gone, and then they sent me to recovery for 12 hours.

I was once again alone, and feeling nervous, and scared, and extremely depressed, they had a therapist come in and they put me on klonopin and lexapro, and they finally gave me a grieving pamphlet to help me cope with everything that I had been through.

I left the hospital that day feeling relieved the bleeding had stopped and my daughter wouldn’t have to be scared anymore that mommy was going to die. This was the worst experience of my entire life and I hope that no other woman would have to endure what I went through at this hospital.

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Since then, I have sought counseling and I am on medication, it still affects my daily life, even when I am not around something that reminds me of the hospital. I have a hard time going to hospitals, driving in my car, being around large groups of people, talking on the phone, even taking my kids to the park. It is really hard for me around the due date I had for this baby, I have pictures on my computer I can not find it in my heart to delete, I don't want to feel like I am totally letting go of my baby. This was a huge factor in my divorce that I had two months after losing the baby. I think the hardest part of dealing with PTSD...is remembering how my life was before I was diagnosed.