I recently had a very traumatic experience with my first pregnancy and I wanted to share it with others so hopefully they can avoid the same thing.
At 7 weeks I had some mild pain and spotting and was told by my GP that I had a small risk of miscarrying. She wanted me to have a scan as soon as possible and the only OB available at the time was Dr Clement Chan. He performed an internal ultrasound (very rough and painful) which showed that the embryo was smaller than it should have been and he insisted on admitting me to hospital as he could not tell if my pregnancy was ectopic. I was beside myself with worry and did not receive any sympathy or reassurance from Dr Chan. He wanted to monitor my HCG levels over the weekend so I spent an agonising 3 days in the hospital waiting for the results.
Dr Chan visited me three times a day for no more than 2 minutes at a time, at a cost of $1600 per visit. On the second night in hospital (after no more pain or spotting) my pregnancy symptoms had started to disappear and I asked to be allowed to go home to miscarry naturally, if that was what was going to happen. He told me I was being "irrational" and that I should trust science instead of getting carried away by my "emotions". I felt that my opinion and instincts were not important to him at all, in fact, he tended to address my husband and ignore me whenever we were both in the room.
The blood test results on the Monday showed that my HCG results were not rising quickly enough (according to Dr Chan, however I have since learned that they were at the lower end of normal) and the scan showed that the embryo was still small. Dr Chan diagnosed a non-viable pregnancy and recommended a full suction evacuation (D & C). I was given the option of tablets but he said that I would need to stay in the hospital until they took effect which could take "up to 10 days." He still refused to let nature take its course as he believed there was still a chance it could be ectopic. Surely this is something a qualified and experienced OB would be able to recognise? In the end it was not ectopic at all. Unfortunately we think Dr Chan knew this all along but wanted to get as much money out of us as possible.
I was given medication to basically induce labour followed by the D & C procedure. I was in extreme pain and was having contractions after the surgery and all he prescribed was paracetamol. I had to wait an hour for the nurses to contact Dr Chan and have him prescribe morphine. Dr Chan came by the following morning and ordered more blood tests to make sure my hormone levels were lower. I was told he would be back to give me the test results and counsel me on what had happened but we were discharged and never saw him again. The whole experience cost us $50,000 HKD and it will be a while before we can afford to try again.
I had no information on what had happened or support for what I had been through. I still don't know what went wrong with my pregnancy and I am disgusted by the way I was treated by Dr Chan. As a first-timer I expected that I could trust the doctor's advice but now I know that I should've asked for a second opinion and trusted my instincts more.
My advice to any first-time mum out there considering using Dr Chan would be to question everything and always get a second opinion if you have any doubts.
At 7 weeks I had some mild pain and spotting and was told by my GP that I had a small risk of miscarrying. She wanted me to have a scan as soon as possible and the only OB available at the time was Dr Clement Chan. He performed an internal ultrasound (very rough and painful) which showed that the embryo was smaller than it should have been and he insisted on admitting me to hospital as he could not tell if my pregnancy was ectopic. I was beside myself with worry and did not receive any sympathy or reassurance from Dr Chan. He wanted to monitor my HCG levels over the weekend so I spent an agonising 3 days in the hospital waiting for the results.
Dr Chan visited me three times a day for no more than 2 minutes at a time, at a cost of $1600 per visit. On the second night in hospital (after no more pain or spotting) my pregnancy symptoms had started to disappear and I asked to be allowed to go home to miscarry naturally, if that was what was going to happen. He told me I was being "irrational" and that I should trust science instead of getting carried away by my "emotions". I felt that my opinion and instincts were not important to him at all, in fact, he tended to address my husband and ignore me whenever we were both in the room.
The blood test results on the Monday showed that my HCG results were not rising quickly enough (according to Dr Chan, however I have since learned that they were at the lower end of normal) and the scan showed that the embryo was still small. Dr Chan diagnosed a non-viable pregnancy and recommended a full suction evacuation (D & C). I was given the option of tablets but he said that I would need to stay in the hospital until they took effect which could take "up to 10 days." He still refused to let nature take its course as he believed there was still a chance it could be ectopic. Surely this is something a qualified and experienced OB would be able to recognise? In the end it was not ectopic at all. Unfortunately we think Dr Chan knew this all along but wanted to get as much money out of us as possible.
I was given medication to basically induce labour followed by the D & C procedure. I was in extreme pain and was having contractions after the surgery and all he prescribed was paracetamol. I had to wait an hour for the nurses to contact Dr Chan and have him prescribe morphine. Dr Chan came by the following morning and ordered more blood tests to make sure my hormone levels were lower. I was told he would be back to give me the test results and counsel me on what had happened but we were discharged and never saw him again. The whole experience cost us $50,000 HKD and it will be a while before we can afford to try again.
I had no information on what had happened or support for what I had been through. I still don't know what went wrong with my pregnancy and I am disgusted by the way I was treated by Dr Chan. As a first-timer I expected that I could trust the doctor's advice but now I know that I should've asked for a second opinion and trusted my instincts more.
My advice to any first-time mum out there considering using Dr Chan would be to question everything and always get a second opinion if you have any doubts.
