3 ms·

During my wife's second pregnancy she was admitted to hospital at 6 months due to some intense abdominal pain and inability to hold down food. The put her on P

During my wife's second pregnancy she was admitted to hospital at 6 months due to some intense abdominal pain and inability to hold down food. The put her on PNT, pumped her stomach daily and run a bunch of tests. I logged every test. Weeks passed she was slipping away and the specialist had no real game plan. So I got another Doctor. A busy professor who travelled a lot and was clearly passionate about his field. Yet still dozens of different tests and scans and they couldn't find the cause. Meanwhile she was getting worse. One of the scholar articles I found matched a test result where blood from upper body had a different profile to that in urine (which matched her result) which pointed to a condition called placenta parcreta. The Dr agreed it was possible and as my wife was slipping away we did an emergency c section. Sure enough the cause was placenta parcreta and the Dr showed a picture of a small tear in uterus that he said was about to rupture anytime. The operation saved her life and perhaps my son too. I'm no Doctor but good at research. Doctors are busy AF. They don't have time to research cases like I did. This is a big gap and while it may not always identify cause and save a life, its damn important. And I can't see why AI could not find what I did.

baremetal 4y ago
Your story made me tear up. You are a hero.
davikr 4y ago
Placenta percreta should have been detected during prenatal care, through ultrasonography, and it's a real shame that kind of visit isn't offered freely. It's also pretty bad that they didn't consider any obstetric causes in their differential. Thankfully, everything is OK now and that makes me happy.
- thelittleone 4y ago
  I'm sure you're right. The cause was identified. Following first child, postpartum bleeding was treated with a D&C. The D&C (unknowingly) perforated her uterus and the intestine was drawn/sucked inward, plugging the hole. It was only after 6 months into second pregnancy that any symptoms where noticed.
oidar 4y ago
This happens so often. Physicians don't have time to keep up on ALL the case studies and ALL the new literature. They are super busy writing notes and taking care documentation and billing - getting on the phone with insurance companies to justify treatment etc. There's not enough time in the day to do it all - so they lean heavily on things like UpToDate. Some physicians get pissed if a pt. brings medical theories to them - but I think that's really the only way to go for these cases - the problem is that the general public doesn't have a working knowledge of medicine, so they are quickly over their head and out of their depth. A family member, someone who isn't afraid of reading journal articles - and understanding statistics, is typically the only way some of these problems are solved - they do it because of love - not because they are paid.

baremetal 4y ago

Your story made me tear up. You are a hero.

davikr 4y ago

Placenta percreta should have been detected during prenatal care, through ultrasonography, and it's a real shame that kind of visit isn't offered freely. It's also pretty bad that they didn't consider any obstetric causes in their differential. Thankfully, everything is OK now and that makes me happy.

thelittleone 4y ago
I'm sure you're right. The cause was identified. Following first child, postpartum bleeding was treated with a D&C. The D&C (unknowingly) perforated her uterus and the intestine was drawn/sucked inward, plugging the hole. It was only after 6 months into second pregnancy that any symptoms where noticed.

oidar 4y ago

This happens so often. Physicians don't have time to keep up on ALL the case studies and ALL the new literature. They are super busy writing notes and taking care documentation and billing - getting on the phone with insurance companies to justify treatment etc. There's not enough time in the day to do it all - so they lean heavily on things like UpToDate. Some physicians get pissed if a pt. brings medical theories to them - but I think that's really the only way to go for these cases - the problem is that the general public doesn't have a working knowledge of medicine, so they are quickly over their head and out of their depth. A family member, someone who isn't afraid of reading journal articles - and understanding statistics, is typically the only way some of these problems are solved - they do it because of love - not because they are paid.