Bad Experience in St Theresa Hospital

J

JoyousBaby

Registered User
I came to Hkg in Feb and in April I got pregnant. I had spotting then and thought it was my period as it was the time of the month, but I could feel some discomfort so heed some advice, friends recommended me to St. Theresa Hospital and after much long queue, get to see this male doctor. After few scan he told me he can't see any thing in the sac, could be too early and was sent home without any injection or medication. Following day I was bleeding profusely and had bad cramps, so we called the hospital and doctor wants me to be admitted right away.
After 1 hour of waiting and in pain, they managed to get all papers done and brought me to the room, I asked the nurse when can I see the doctor or what are the procedures or is there any medication to stop the pain and bleeding?? "Wait doctor will come see u, take blood test first"... is all about waiting and it was 3pm.. after blood test about 5pm I was running out of patience and insist to talk to the doctor, I can't be bleeding like this... Finally at 830pm I got to see the doctor and with a few scan, oh I was having ectopic pregnancy and I need to have operation right away!! I was in shock and doubt the efficiency of the doc, I asked lots of ques and he was really really impatient with me. Said its up to me but is life threatening and it might burst anytime.
I have to remove my whole fallopian tube, I was told. I demanded to be discharged right away.. I just simply don't trust what I've just heard so went to seek 2nd opinion.
Now in into 11 wks gestation and was not even ectopic pregnancy! Thank God I was not silly enough to go thru what that doc had told me. To get rid of my fallopian tube? Ridiculous..
Hope everything turn out well for me and this pregnancy..
Wish all mum to be, healthy and happy too.. God Bless :lovedface:
 
So no matter what I'm not going back to that hospital. Because of this I start to have doubts and insisting I wanna go back to my country to deliver. Unfortunately, my partner is not thrilled about this idea. I should not be so unfair cos of 1 hospital and doc, I have no faith in others. Will have to decide soon as most hospitals are full till Jan 2012.
oh dear
 
Good on you for getting a second opinion. One of the problems with the user pays private hospital system is that they do have a financial incentive to find something wrong with you. Not saying that most docs would do that, but it is worrying. I had one friend who was advised by a private doc she needed a D&C after an early miscarriage, which she did immediately at great expense. But she was only 5 weeks pregnant at the time and in my experience (2 early miscarriages) they usually don't need to be done. I was very surprised the doc told her to do it immediately.

There are many off putting aspects of the maternity system here. If you stick with public, stuff like this is probably less likely to occur because they tread more cautiously and of course have no financial incentive to advise unnecessary surgery. But there are some good OBGYNs, you just need to do the homework to find the right one for you. You shouldn't have to go home to deliver.
 
OUTRAGEOUS.

Contact a lawyer and then file a formal complaint with the hospital authority detailing your experience and the doctors negligence. He nearly cost you your baby and half your chances of ever getting pregnant again.
 
Agree with the above, I really do think this is a case where you should contact the health authority with a formal complaint. Sorry you had to go through this.
 
Shenzhennifer said:
OUTRAGEOUS.

Contact a lawyer and then file a formal complaint with the hospital authority detailing your experience and the doctors negligence. He nearly cost you your baby and half your chances of ever getting pregnant again.
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In order for any complaint to be taken seriously by the Hospital Authority or Medical Council, you will need to have some form of evidential proof to back it up otherwise they'll most likely not take the time to investigate your complaint. From a legal perspective, it's also very hard to prove negligence because the legal standard is pitched very high indeed.
 
I can only file a complaint but it might take ages for them to even get back to me. Anyway really thank God for blessing and women's hunch not to go ahead blindly just because he is a doctor? Gee, was indeed bad experience and I shared with my current Gynae and she was shocked. Was too early to see anything in the sac when I visited St. Theresa Hospital, insisted baby is not in that empty sac but in fallopian tube, when he scan I can't even make up what was to be seen in the tube as to me nothing is there! He was really really impatient and it just pissed me off.. Always good to seek 2nd opinion though...safety sake!
 
Have lawyer send complaint to HA on your behalf, should speed things up.
I filed a complaint. Took a good 2 months to get a general response, to which I contacted them about and complained further. I got pretty high up but it really went no where as that final conversation happened when my baby was a week old already, so all was said and done and I had a great experience with my birth there so I was pretty forgiving at that point:) but still Important to file a complaint against the doctor, assuming you have his name.
 
Oh my goodness, I am so horrified that this happened to you! I wish you and your baby a smooth ride for the rest of your pregnancy and that you do find a doctor you can feel confident in!
 
Agree with Shenzhennifer, at least file a complaint against this doctor if you have his name, maybe you won't be able to change anything yourself but if he has acted incompetently in several cases and the authority receive more complaints they will take action against him as no authority would want to be liable for his next mistake. This is not a 'whoops, could happen to anyone' thing it's dangerous incompetence.
 
RileyC said:
In order for any complaint to be taken seriously by the Hospital Authority or Medical Council, you will need to have some form of evidential proof to back it up otherwise they'll most likely not take the time to investigate your complaint. From a legal perspective, it's also very hard to prove negligence because the legal standard is pitched very high indeed.
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While I agree that the legal standard in proving negligence is high, my experience is that as long as one can find a medical expert in the same field to support one's argument that a similarly experienced and reasonably competent medical practitioner would not have done what your doctor has done, there is an arguable case. What you need to decide of course is whether you are happy to fund litigation in order to "seek justice". (btw I'm not in private practice anymore so not soliciting business here!)

In any case, I would seriously urge you to at least file a complaint with the Medical Council (http://www.mchk.org.hk/index.htm. Correspondence address is 17/F, Wu Chung Building, 213 Queen's Road East, Wanchai), enclosing with your complaint all the medical notes that you have and can get your hands on (you have a right to all your medical records from St Theresa - don't let them tell you otherwise). Also see here for more info on patients' rights: http://www.hkma.org/english/pubmededu/rightset.htm
 
Thank you all for the wonderful advice. Will seriously consider and gather whatever proof or papers I received from that Doc... I just had my check up with the gynae yesterday, glad that things are more stable and hope the following tests will be ok too. Never have Oscar test done before so the nature of the test already stressed me out, maybe I'm in my late 30s?
Will stay positive and things will all turn out well...
 
Good luck with your pregnancy JoyousBaby. It would really be a public service if you reported the doctor but it is important not to be stressed out in pregnancy, so don't do it if you think it would get you stressed out.
 
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