Having been told they had had a
miscarriage, a Wanganui couple spent a night grieving for their lost child ... only to learn the baby was
alive and well.
Crystal Waitokia and her
partner Chance Muir are upset at the misdiagnosis - and that they were refused an ultrasound scan which would have confirmed the
baby's
health.
They were delighted that an appointment the following day to find the cause of the supposed
miscarriage actually found a healthy pregnancy - but they don't want other parents to go through the
night of
heartbreak they did.
The
couple
were in the emergency department of Whanganui Hospital on March 1
because Miss Waitokia had been suffering cramping and bleeding 12 weeks
into her pregnancy, and a doctor mistakenly told them they'd had a
miscarriage.
"At first we didn't believe it," Ms Waitokia said. "We went to the
hospital to rule out a miscarriage - we never actually expected to have one."
She
had suffered similar symptoms two weeks earlier and went for tests at
the hospital to find out her baby was fine. The second time it happened,
the doctor gave them the diagnosis after only looking at her blood test
results.
Mr Muir asked for an ultrasound to double check, but was told there was no point, Miss Waitokia said.
They
went for a specialist follow-up appointment to determine what had
caused the miscarriage, but as soon as the scan came up on the screen,
the baby was "jumping around ... and you could see the heartbeat," Ms
Waitokia said.
"We just started crying, we were just super happy,
we were jumping up and down ... it was a happy moment but we weren't
too happy with the doctor that diagnosed it."
Whanganui District
Health Board surgical services clinical director Mark Stegmann said the
doctor's miscarriage diagnosis was understandable given Miss Waitokia's
clinical
presentation.
But
a definitive diagnosis of miscarriage should not usually be made
without confirmation, either by a repeat blood test some days later or
by an ultrasound scan, Dr Stegmann said.
The doctor "regrettably" told the patient she had miscarried before they had this confirmation.
The
doctor in question discussed the blood test result with a senior doctor
and referred her to the early pregnancy clinic for confirmation the
following day.
It was not a case of one doctor making a judgment
call on their own and there was no indication that an urgent ultrasound
scan was needed, Dr Stegmann said.
"The health board regrets that
this happened and we acknowledge how upsetting it would have been for
the patient and her partner."
Miss Waitokia, who
quit smoking when she found out she was pregnant, immediately went home after the diagnosis and had a
cigarette.
"If it wasn't so late we would have stopped at the bottle store and drowned our sorrows as well," she said.
The
couple, who have two other children - a 2-year-old girl and a
10-year-old boy - have laid a complaint with the hospital over the
incident.
"I don't think it was the hospital's fault," she said. "We just want the doctor to
learn a bit
more about pregnancy."
