THE MEDICAL MAYHEM CONTINUES

Two articles below: One from Victoria and one from Queensland. Also see a comment by conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG

Woman in labour sent home from public hospital

Why was such a risk taken? This was already a risky situation. It was just luck that all went well in the end



A woman gave birth to a baby girl at her mother's Mitcham house less than an hour after being sent home from Box Hill Hospital. Angela Valle arrived at the hospital at 9am on August 14 to deliver her second child after her water had broken at 5am that morning. Mrs Valle was having contractions every five minutes and was in a lot of pain. "The doctor came in and she said I was only two centimetres dilated so I probably wouldn't go into labour until later in the afternoon," Mrs Valle said. "I thought at the time I was already in labour because my water had broken and I was in pain."

Mrs Valle said she felt like she was rushed out of the hospital. "There was someone in full-blown labour who I was told was coming into the room directly after me," she said.

Instead of delivering daughter Amy with the safety of a doctor and nursing staff on hand at the hospital, Mrs Valle gave birth with the help of just her husband and an ambulance operator speaking down the phone to them. "She was the best help we had the lady on the phone," Mrs Valle said.

Director of nursing and midwifery Denise Patterson said Mrs Valle wasn't sent home because of a lack of beds. "This was based on a clinical assessment and not related to service capacity or bed availability," Ms Patterson said. "Sometimes women do progress in labour faster than we are able to anticipate. "We understand the distress caused in a case such as this and are regretful that this has happened to Angela and her family."

Mrs Valle said she held no animosity towards the hospital but was upset about the danger she was placed in. "After the delivery we were on a high because we had delivered our daughter, but the next day my husband and I had a bit of a cry because it hit us what could have happened," Mrs Valle said. "If the umbilical cord had wrapped around her neck we wouldn't have known what to do."

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Bike rider's pain as surgery for crushed hand stalled



BOB Skinner was kept waiting for four days in excruciating pain by a Brisbane hospital after his hand was mangled in a motorcycle accident. He was admitted to Princess Alexandra Hospital last Thursday night after his hand was crushed and his finger partially severed in the accident near his house at Goodna, southwest of Brisbane. However an operation was delayed three times due to higher priority patients and he was finally treated on Monday morning, four days after he was first admitted. Under surgical guidelines, Mr Skinner's injury should have been treated within eight hours of his admittance, with a maximum 24-hour wait.

"I had two morphine shots each day for the pain," the 39-year-old said. "Every time I moved, a bolt of pain would shoot from my hand and I couldn't sleep." PA Hospital defended the delay, saying resources were badly stretched on the weekend with the hospital performing more than 30 emergency operations. Clinical chief executive David Thiele said emergency trauma on weekends was "governed by saving life or limb". "Where it is unlikely that there will be a change in the outcome of an operation, an operation receives lower priority over one that will either save a life or improve the end outcome for the patient," Dr Thiele said.

"Mr Skinner's surgery was prioritised according to the nature of the injury and the likely outcome of surgery which would not have changed the end result of injury, that being partial amputation of his finger." Mr Skinner said he had only two meals during his four-day stay. "Eventually I got so fed up I got them to disconnect my drip and I was over at the fast food joint across the road in my hospital gown," he said.

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