Pregnant woman unknowingly loses baby while COVID-19 prevented ultrasound
A Carbonear woman is reeling after finding out she was carrying around her baby for eight weeks after it had died, a delay she says could have been prevented had it not been for inadequate health care.
Linda King, 24, said a private clinic in St. John's confirmed her worst fear after multiple trips to the emergency room and a scheduled ultrasound that was cancelled due to COVID-19.
"I had a bump.… I had a baby bump," she told CBC News on Thursday. "This baby was still inside of me but it just wasn't alive."
King said she was was delighted after her first gynecology appointment showed she was about eight weeks along with her second child.
But shortly after, King said, she became stomach-sick, couldn't keep food down, and at one point, hadn't eaten for days.
She went several times to the Carbonear General Hospital in early March.
"They gave me a prescription for anti-nausea medication and sent me on my way but they never did any blood work, or an ultrasound, or checked the baby's heartbeat," King said.
Worried something was wrong, King said she tried to get in to see her gynecologist again but was met with a delay.
"I was asking for an appointment because I was so sick but I guess there was a long waiting list to get in. There were other people besides me and I had to wait my turn."
At the 12-week mark, King was booked to have a dating ultrasound, which determines how far along in the pregnancy she is, and her expected due date.
Due to COVID-19, the ultrasound was cancelled, as it was deemed non-essential. She was told to wait for a letter in the mail with a date for her 20-week anatomy scan, which is crucial in determining a baby's health.
"I have a doppler where you can listen to the baby's heartbeat," King said.
"Usually at 16 weeks-ish it can be hard to find the baby's heartbeat but I found [my son's] early so I kinda knew something wasn't right when I knew I couldn't find the baby's heartbeat."
Private clinic delivers bad news
For a small fee, King went to the Athena Clinic in St. John's, which has continued to perform ultrasounds. She was able to get in the same day she called, so she made the one-hour trip to St. John's.
"That's when they gave me the bad news," King said. "The baby had been gone for quite some while and I had no idea."
King had suffered what's called a missed miscarriage, when the loss isn't overtly apparent. The body doesn't expel the pregnancy tissue.
She was presented options for a procedure at the clinic but chose to get it done closer to home. The wait to remove the fetus was two weeks in Carbonear.
"I just wanted to get it over with, get it done. I didn't want to carry her around with me," she said. "Someone should have helped me and guided me along instead of sending me home."
The young mother of one said her confidence in the health-care system has been shaken, and is urging the provincial government to reassess what is considered essential.
"It was very frustrating knowing I never got the proper health care I should have got," she said.
"I was pregnant, at this time I was 16 weeks, I should have at least seen the baby or had some blood work done when I went to the emergency room to figure out if everything was all right, and I didn't."
Wants to see changes
She struggles with the knowledge that she could have been told eight weeks sooner that her baby was gone. After a lengthy wait, however, King was notified Thursday she would be able to see her psychiatrist in early June.
"There are so many sick people and pregnant women who can't get in to see their doctor and I don't think this ultrasound should have been cancelled," she said.
"I just want to see change in how the health-care system is treating everybody just COVID-19. Everybody should be taken seriously, especially when you think something is wrong."
Under the current Alert Level 4 of the province's reopening plan, regional health authorities have begun to allow some health-care services to resume.
Asked about King's story during the COVID-19 briefing on Friday, Dr. John Haggie said he couldn't comment on a specific case.
However, his answer about proper care during the pandemic overall runs counter to King's entire experience.
"The bottom line is if at any stage should a clinician have felt a particular test is relevant to a person's immediate management, the test is never denied, never unavailable, it was always there literally no more than a phone call away," Haggie said.
"That has always been my position, it has been my instruction to the RHAs (regional health authorities) and they have had, as far as I'm aware, no difficulties adhering to that."
For its part, Eastern Health responded Friday afternoon to say it empathized with King, but couldn't comment specifically on the case.
The health authority confirmed that 12-week ultrasounds were cancelled due to the pandemic but said, "In the case of an emergency or for other clinical concerns, the attending physician is able to consult with the obstetrician and radiologist on call to determine if an urgent ultrasound is required."
King said she is upset by Haggie's response to her story, and is left without answers while longing for the baby she wish she was still carrying.
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