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From: John
Email: johnblum@charter.net
Category: Induction/Pitocin
Date: 13 Jan 2004
Angela, I know you don't feel this way, however, you and those who survived with healthy babies were lucky. You see both my wife of only 20 months and my only baby boy did not survive the misuse of pitocin. My wife was only 23 years old and having her second child. She was perfectly healthy and had a normal pregnancy. With only 10 days to her due date, she was having strong pains, was a small woman and the male baby was large. I agreed to the doctor's recommendation to induce labor and felt all was safe. After arriving at the hospital at 0800, the first nurse did not want to start the pitocin drip as my wife was already having contractions. She did not start the pit drip until 1500 hrs. when my wife's labor slowed. I was told that all women reacted differently and that caution needed to be used. For 3 hours I watched the numbers on the pitocin drip go to "3", "6" & "9" and then back to "6". When the hospital had a nurse shift change at 7 PM and the doctor came back from his sushi dinner, the pit drip was raised to "18" and 20 minutes later to "30". The doctor had said my wife wouldn't have the baby until 1 or 2 in the morning, however, within an hour the baby was in fetal distress and an emergency c-section was done. The baby was born motionless and with permanent brain damage due to deprivation of oxygen for too long of a period. My wife began to hemorhage, due to amniotic fluid embolism, (which the doctors describe as mysterious and unpreventable - how convenient!) the amniotic fluid went into her blood stream causing the blood not to coagulate, then filled her lungs and she died of cardiac arrest in the hospital 6 hours later. Our baby died 11 days later in intensive care after I instructed the hospital to take him off of the machine keeping him alive. Several things I am sure of: 1. Once you agree to induce labor, the doctor can increase it for the sake of his convenience( i.e, its time to deliver the baby and get home) 2. When something goes wrong, doctors will not admit a mistake, quickly put together their defense and do have a code of silence among doctors. 3. An overdose of pitocin can cause fetal distress 4. Amniotic fluid embolism needs 3 thing to occur, rupture of membranes, rupture of uterus and a pressure gradient from amniotic fluid to mother's blood stream. The overdose of pitocin can cause the uterus to rupture. I have litigation pending at this time, so I don't know if I am wise to even post this, but what the hell. If anyone goes to Oprah or Montel please include me. Right now, because of reckless use of pitocin, I visit two headstones 2 or 3 times a week.
Just for the record, all information posted here are personal experiences/stories. There are no Doctors/Nurses answering questions on the board. This board is for sharing stories so we can learn from each other! If you have any problems with the board, please email me at Angela4KP1@comcast.net