3 years ago
I started off as a patient at Obstetrix medical gr...
I started off as a patient at Obstetrix medical group, which is a high-risk OB located right across the lot from St. Luke's Presbytarian. My care was transferred there due to a pulmonary embolism I developed after the birth of my first daughter. In the beginning everything was fine... until a false positive Hep B screen. My care there went from OK to horrible. They would discuss my health information in front of other members of the practice, and even other patients. I felt like an outcast. I had a second test done through denver health and it came back negative for Hep B. I asked the doctors if there was any way that the sample was mixed up at the lab, and they refused to even consider it. I had a follow up test done weeks later, and to their "suprise" everything came back negative, I've never had Hep B. (As I had already known, due to the fact that I was vaccinated years back) I got a call from the state health department that I was reported by Obstetrix as a Hep B carrier, to which i had to explain that the lab work was a false-positive. They didnt even have the decency to let me know that they'd be disclosing this information with the health department. I went through all of this, just to be told that my initial test was wrong and I actually don't have Hep B, all while dealing with an already complicated pregnancy. I was due for an iron infusion at St. Luke's, where I met Dr. Borgstrom i believe his name was. He felt the need to let every one of my nurses know that I was Hep B positive. No matter where i went they attached this to me like a scarlet letter. Fast forward to delivery day.
My water broke and I had come in to give birth at St Luke's presbytarian. Apparently I was "fully dilated" when I got there and would have the baby any moment. The room was being prepped quickly for delivery. Nurses in and out. In a panic, and also in extreme pain from my very strong contractions i asked if it was too late for an epidural. Once i asked this question, almost everybody in the room looked at me with a face of disgust. One nurse stopped and told me "it's not, but i think we're just going to go natural". I then replied "I don't think I can, I'm very nervous and my plan was not to go natural" another nurse then said "but you've already done the hard part" they had no regard for my birth plan. After going back and forth the doctor told me that he would inject a medication into my vagina that would make me numb. I agreed, as I believed an epidural was out of the question. After being prodded, and poked with the needle dr borgstrom saw how nervous I was and how painful my contractions were and all of a sudden I was no longer fully dilated I was at a 8 and could get an epidural. Fine. All the nurses leave the room. After getting the epidural, Dr. Borgstrom returns, and asks me if I would consent to a urine drug test. I was in shock. 39 minutes ago he was ready for me to push, but now because I want an epidural you assume I take drugs? "Fine" I tell him. He tells me "I tried to tell the nurses... that you were clean, but because you transferred to obstetrix late we want to drug test you" "fine, I guess. I don't take drugs" a catheter was then placed inside my vagina and that's how they collected my urine to drug test me. Humiliating. I guess they didnt trust me to pee in a cup. I am almost at 10 cm so the doctors and nurses come in. Dr borgstrom is getting everyone ready for delivery and tells the room "moms first Hep b test came back positive, but now its supposedly negative" he uses the word "supposedly" almost in a sarcastic tone. At this point I am disgusted. I end up giving birth to a healthy baby boy, and he's checked out by the NICU nurse and he's good to go. I see a nurse in the corner cutting up my son's umbilical cord, I ask her "what do you guys do with it. She lies and tells me that they send the cord to pathology for testing. I was discharged exactly 24 hours later. Although I was high risk. They never spoke to me about discharge instructions, yet lied on my paperwork about discussing several things with me.