B.C. woman bleeding from miscarriage left in hallway

Langley, BC

In another example of BC’s health care system at the breaking pointFraser Health ordered the review after a patient was left in the hallway overnight bleeding profusely from an untreated miscarriage.

Sonia Portillo knew she had miscarried, but was surprised by the sudden, severe blood loss and murmurs that prompted BCEHS to rush her to Langley Memorial Hospital last week, where she was admitted just before noon after waiting in the emergency room for about an hour.

“I was bleeding through my clothes,” she told CTV News. “I tried to get up to walk and it was forbidden, just straight away dizzy, nauseous and I had to lie down even to catch my breath.”

Several hours passed, with nurses occasionally checking on him, she said, but no one brought him pain medication despite the increasing spasms and pain; his partner approached the nurse’s station to see if anyone could help him that evening.

“I said. “Is there anything you can give him?” and it was immediately tense, confrontational,” said Estevan Garcia, who described being concerned by the blood volume, drop in blood pressure and continued pain that Portillo was experiencing.

“He was in no condition to defend himself.”

Shortly after that, the couple says, a doctor finally came to prescribe pain medication, but Garcia was met with hostility by the same staff member when he tried to give Portillo a pillow.

Soon after, they were kicked out of their room, leaving the young woman to spend the night in a bed in the hallway. The same staff member insisted that Garcia leave for the night, even though hospital rules allowed him to stay, and Portillo had no way of getting help without him there.

FRASER HEALTH RESPONSE

While Fraser Health’s policy does not allow them to discuss a patient’s details, even if the patient has given consent and spoken to reporters, the health authority confirmed a review was being carried out after the couple lodged a complaint.

“I take all complaints very seriously and review them thoroughly,” said Dr. Craig Murray, Fraser Health’s director of emergency medicine for the area that includes Langley Memorial Hospital.

He said that while miscarriages can be unpredictable, the priority is to provide timely medical care and pain control, as well as control the situation, including blood loss.

He acknowledged that while the LMH team is working hard, the facility is extremely busy. Asked if the standard of care had changed, he admitted lack of critical personnel.

“The personnel challenges are reality in the workforce right now and it’s always hard to adapt to those changes,” Murray said. “We work hard to maintain excellence in healthcare and provide timely and compassionate care in the emergency department.”

THE PORTILLO RESULT

The morning after he was checked in, a new nursing team suddenly began doing blood work and tending to his urgent needs, Portillo said. Late in the morning, she visited a gynecologist who was the first to communicate with her about her medical status and needs.

“(Dr. Ng) was wonderful,” she said. “He was the first person to recognize my partner and ask how he was doing because this is something he’s going through too. He was so compassionate, so simple.”

Portillo had lost three liters of blood at that point and needed a transfusion before undergoing surgery to remove the fetal tissue, a procedure that took 10 minutes and stopped her pain and bleeding.

“Obviously, the health care system is overwhelmed, and I think it’s important not to complain against them, but to complain for them,” she said, motivated by advocacy on behalf of other pregnant patients she hopes she never has to. live long, painful, confusing. situation as he did.

“(Staff) are tired, they are overloadedThey’re dealing with crisis all day and I can see how you can burn out and my heart goes out to them,” Portillo said. “But I’m grateful to the people who showed that compassion and apologized for what we were. is passing. Something as simple as that makes a huge difference in care.”