Misdiagnosis of Ectopic Pregnancy

[Unregistered]

On June 12th of this year, I went to our local ER because I had been having vaginal bleeding for 3 weeks, and found out that I was pregnant. The doctor there told me that I was possibly having a miscarriage and to watch and get into the doctor as soon as possible. On June 14th I had and ultrasound done and a vaginal ultrasound done. The next day at my family doctor he told me they could not see anything on the ultrasounds because I was not far enough along yet, but so far it looked ok. Well on Monday June 18th, I started having severe cramps, I could not walk, move or anything. My boyfriend took me back to the ER, where I told them I was pregnant and what was going on. The doctor had a blood test done on me, and that was all. He never touched me the whole time I was in there. No ultrasound, no pelvic exam, he didn't even feel my stomach to see if I had pain anywhere. He put his hand on the side of the bed and told me I was having a miscarriage, gave me some pain pills and sent me home. Two days later on June 20th I finally got into a OBGYN. Within 30 minutes of being there he was doing an ultrasound and found that I in fact had an ectopic pregnancy. He said the pains I had on Monday were my felopian tube rupturing, and that I had been bleeding internally for two days, so they had to get me in to do surgery as soon as possible. During the surgery he found that since it had not been caught on that Monday like it should have they had to take out my right felopian tube. And I now have only a 30 percent chance to have kids. And to think I had asked the ER doctor if they had checked for an ectopic pregnancy and he said yes and that was not what it was it was just a miscarriage.

[Unregistered]

I was having pain, spotting. Went to ob/gyn he said it was a pelvic infection. Gave me antibiotics and sent me home. Couple of days later, still in pain called the doctor. Again, went to the doctors office. Sent me home. His conversation included sentences such as "young mother of two"..etc. Bottom-line, It's all in your head. Two days later I had my husband take me to the emergency room around midnight. Kept hearing the nurses say "what a shame it was that I brought my babies out in the middle of the night." The physician after pushing on my stomach, tossed a enema box at me and told me not to use the emergency room as a doctor's office." Three days later my mailman heard me crying for help. He called an ambulance. When I got to the emergency room I heard the nurses say "oh, she's back." .. diagnosed with an abdominal pregnancy. Lost the baby; it was attached to the abdominal wall and colon. Suffered a cardiac arrest in surgery. Almost cost me my life. Now, years later I had double vision and was told I needed new glasses. Ended up to be Multiple Sclerosis. What ever happened to the oath "do no harm"..

[Unregistered]

It is truly pathetic how callous and uncaring the medical field has become. I experience it constantly, and in the worst possible way. My husband is in the military, and military "doctors" are some of the worst. You hear horror stories ALL THE TIME about misdiagnoses, and Primary Care Managers who simply don't give a #&%*.
I'm having trouble getting pregnant, and all the "doctors" tell me is "keep trying" as they walk out the door to the next patient. When my father in law was in the Air Force, my mother in law had sudden and excruciating abdominal pain. He took her to the base hospital where they diagnosed her for (get ready for this)...."Bored Housewife Syndrome" they gave her a bottle of 200 vicadin and told her to smoke. Wow.
Turns out she needed gall bladder surgery. She almost died. If he hadn't taken her to the emergency room, she would have.
Military doctors SUCK, and any doctor who doesn't care enough to investigate all the possible causes of symptoms should have their medical license revoked!!
Sueing is not the answer, I think people should report bad doctors to the medical board.

[Unregistered]

Mistakes were made, and I will tell you where it began.

Do not fault the ER doctor and the family doctor early in your course. There may have been a faulty reading of the ultrasound or poor technical performance of the ultrasound by the Ultrasound tech. They probably were not able to visualize the tubes well. I wonder why he was not concerned about a three week history of bleeding at that time. It is common to bleed a little in the implantation phases of preganancy, but not to have continuous bleeding for that long. In any case, he should have warned you that you may be miscarrying at that time.

The ER doc on the 18th should have recognized that since a gestational sac was not seen in your uterus and you had been bleeding for three weeks that you may be miscarrying or perhaps had an ectopic pregnancy. A physical examination might have helped, but often would not have revealed an ectopic. Ectopic pregnancies are small and not palpable during physical exam. Tenderness may not always be present until rupture of the tube or intra-abdominal hemorrhage.A wise choice at that time may have been to do a curettage of the uterus. If no villi or evidence of pregnancy is seen, attention to the fallopian tubes as soon as possible would be advisable.

Unfortunately, it is common for an ectopic to have already damaged the tube before it is diagnosed. The option is salpingotomy (opening up the tube and cleaning it out.) Some Catholic hospitals only allow salpingectomy (removal of the whole tube with the pregnancy). Even with salpingotomy, functionality isn't guaranteed on that side.

I hope that I have helped you to understand the difficulties doctors face everyday. Diagnoses are not as easy as you would think, or lawyers would like to make jurors believe. No doctor ever goes to work wanting to make a wrong decision. Belng a doctor is like taking the most important test of your life everyday and not being allowed to every get one question wrong.

[Unregistered]

ER docs are notorious for their half-assed approach to acute medical care. My daughter has several major medical issues that require frequent ER visits. I have had a wealth of experience with emergency room physicians, and most of them fall prey to the tendency to either over-treat or under-treat. My mother is a doctor, and is often horrified at my recounting of my daughter's treatment at the hands of hospital staff. Even her regular physicians fall short of the mark on occasion. There is a lack of thoroughness evident in our current healthcare system.

Mistakes were made, and I will tell you where it began.

Do not fault the ER doctor and the family doctor early in your course. There may have been a faulty reading of the ultrasound or poor technical performance of the ultrasound by the Ultrasound tech. They probably were not able to visualize the tubes well. I wonder why he was not concerned about a three week history of bleeding at that time. It is common to bleed a little in the implantation phases of preganancy, but not to have continuous bleeding for that long. In any case, he should have warned you that you may be miscarrying at that time.

The ER doc on the 18th should have recognized that since a gestational sac was not seen in your uterus and you had been bleeding for three weeks that you may be miscarrying or perhaps had an ectopic pregnancy. A physical examination might have helped, but often would not have revealed an ectopic. Ectopic pregnancies are small and not palpable during physical exam. Tenderness may not always be present until rupture of the tube or intra-abdominal hemorrhage.A wise choice at that time may have been to do a curettage of the uterus. If no villi or evidence of pregnancy is seen, attention to the fallopian tubes as soon as possible would be advisable.

Unfortunately, it is common for an ectopic to have already damaged the tube before it is diagnosed. The option is salpingotomy (opening up the tube and cleaning it out.) Some Catholic hospitals only allow salpingectomy (removal of the whole tube with the pregnancy). Even with salpingotomy, functionality isn't guaranteed on that side.

I hope that I have helped you to understand the difficulties doctors face everyday. Diagnoses are not as easy as you would think, or lawyers would like to make jurors believe. No doctor ever goes to work wanting to make a wrong decision. Belng a doctor is like taking the most important test of your life everyday and not being allowed to every get one question wrong.

[Unregistered]

ER docs are notorious for their half-assed approach to acute medical care. My daughter has several major medical issues that require frequent ER visits. I have had a wealth of experience with emergency room physicians, and most of them fall prey to the tendency to either over-treat or under-treat. My mother is a doctor, and is often horrified at my recounting of my daughter's treatment at the hands of hospital staff. Even her regular physicians fall short of the mark on occasion. There is a lack of thoroughness evident in our current healthcare system.

My mother was an ER doc, and I know she always tried her hardest to think of everything. It is easy to second-guess other doctors, especially when we already know the outcome. So much judgment is involved in emergency care. Nothing is ever textbook or absolute. Every case is like a riddle, where you are given some, but not all of the information you need to get the answer. It's a tough life, and people don't understand the complexities until they have been in the shoes of that doctor. I review cases which have gone bad, and it is not usually that the doctors have intentionally "half-assed" it or "over-done" things. They are under incredible pressure to keep patients moving through the emergency room. They cannot order all the tests they could possibly want because of cost and time confinements. If they over-do it, it is because of the remote chance that they could miss something unusual and be sued someday. If they order the test, they have to trust the results from the lab or the radiologist. Sometimes they don't even have a reliable history from the patient. In the end, they have to painstakingly document every thought process, all the while under tremendous pressure to move onto the next case.

Again, I am sorry for whatever misfortune befell your loved ones, but if I could make just one person understand the difficulties of being a doctor, I would be pleased. Unfortunately, I will probably eventually be blocked from posting on this site.

[Unregistered 1]

That is part a normal role out in a ER, An ultrasound should been done at the time of the ER visit and a pregnancy test plus a pelvic exam. This should be routine for them. Ectopic pregnancy falls under ER medicine. If the Radiologists missed because of an incomplete ultrasound it should be been repeated. This is something that should not be missed it can be deadly.



Thank God you are ok.

[SweetNurse]

I am curious. Why only a 30% chance of conceiving? You still have one health fallopian tube, do you not? Many people conceive after a salpingectomy. Have faith.

[Dxd]

That is part a normal role out in a ER, An ultrasound should been done at the time of the ER visit and a pregnancy test plus a pelvic exam. This should be routine for them. Ectopic pregnancy falls under ER medicine. If the Radiologists missed because of an incomplete ultrasound it should be been repeated.

Ultrasounds are one of the least expensive tools doctors have to diagnosis conditions and diseases.

In this situation, the ER doctor should have ordered that plus a CT scan of the upper and lower abdominal regions. I had heavy bleeding, long term and after a pelvic, several tests, and one Transvaginal US my primary doctor ordered a CT scan. He wanted to cover all bases. Sadly though, he was barking up the wrong tree by only looking at my heavy bleeding. It was symptom of a bigger picture.

And that is the problem with health care today. I've seen more doctors in the last 2 years than I've seen in my entire life (I'm in my 50's) and had so many misdiagnoses for three conditions which were all interlinked. The problem was the same again and again. A doctor would focus on one symptom or a cluster of symptoms which seemed to fit together, rather than on the entire gamut of symptoms and signs, which in turn lead to several misdiagnoses. Then the doctor gives the patient a Bandaid for their hemorrhage.

One time I was told by an ED doctor to not come back to the hospital if I had the same symptoms. He told me to simply take two Advil and take a nap. I actually had a condition which can result in serious complications if left untreated. I went 6 more months without the correct diagnosis and treatment.

[Unregistered]

last week i went to my first prenatal visit to find out i was 5 weeks and 2 days pregnant .at this ime the doc told me that she could see a sac but no heartbeat . she sent me to do bloodwork for my HCG levels after 2 tests and three days later she told me my levels did not go up and that meant an abnormal pregnancy (ectopic) and i needed to schedule for a termination. After 24 hrs of grieving my loss i started researching on ectopic pregnancy , i had none of the symptoms and did not feel in my heart the doctor was right . i called my doctor and asked if there was any way she could be wrong . she told me no i then told her that i refused to terminate untill i had another ultrasound . she finally agreed i scheduled the ultrasound that day i was now 6 weeks and to my surprise the radiologist showed me my perfectly normal fetus and its heartbeat. I was appalled that my doc would be so careless as to not offer extra test before deciding to abort my baby