It's sometime that I've written about the high risk obstetric patients that we continue to have at NJH. Of course, winter is considered to be off-season for obstetric care.
The first one was TB. TB was into her fourth pregnancy. Her first 2 deliveries were at home. The third one was a Cesarian section done 5 years back. She had no clue on why the surgery was done.
She came in with labour pains since about 12 hours. They were trying to deliver her at home when someone thought that something was amiss. On arrival, we were quite convinced that she had ruptured the uterus.
On opening, there was something funny. The rupture was not along the previous suture line. The rupture had happened along the lateral aspect of the body of the uterus.
There can be only one diagnosis. The gravid uterus was massaged and thus the rupture happened. On finishing the surgery we asked the relatives whether some sort of massage was done. They were quite surprised that we found that out without their telling it to us.
TB's 3 children are lucky to have their mother alive.
The next patient, whose story I am going to narrate is not yet out of danger. SD, a young mother of a one year child came around the 8th month of her pregnancy. The problem was she was bleeding.
We could tell that clinically, her hemoglobin did not look beyond 3 gm%. She had a complete placenta praevia. It was horrifying to note that she had spotting on and off and her relatives never thought that the condition could be life-threatening.
More on SD in my next post . . .
