NSW: Another woman tells of hospital public toilet miscarriage
09 Jan 2009 11:20 AM
SYDNEY, Jan 9 AAP - A woman who feared she was about to miscarry says a nurse at a NSW public hospital directed her to a public toilet cubicle where she miscarried and disposed of her 14-week-old foetus.
Retelling a chain of events similar to that of Jana Horska, who miscarried in a Sydney hospital toilet in September 2007 after waiting two hours in the emergency department, the woman has told Fairfax Radio Network of her visit to Maitland Hospital days before Christmas.
Fourteen weeks pregnant, Jodie Whiteside was at her home in the Hunter region with her husband and two children when she felt something was "wrong".
After believing her waters had broken, and able to see the leg of her child, Ms Whiteside decided to go to Maitland Hospital, about 30 minutes drive away.
"En route my husband phoned up the Maitland Hospital emergency department to say what had happened and that I was on my way," Ms Whiteside said.
"It was a blase response, basically that I have to be processed like everyone else and wait to see the triage nurse."
On arrival at the hospital, Ms Whiteside said she was "in a lot of pain, cowering over the counter" while she was being asked for her personal details.
A triage nurse then asked Ms Whiteside a series of questions.
"I said that I saw the baby coming away and she proceeded to take my blood pressure, I think that she took my temperature and she gave me a plastic pot and said `I need a urine sample'," she said.
"I told her that I was 14 weeks pregnant ... I asked her `if I'm miscarrying what do I do?' She said there is nothing they can do and instructed me to go to the toilet."
After making her way through a crowded emergency department waiting room, Ms Whiteside reached the women's public toilet.
"It's a bit of a blur to me, all I know is I gave birth to the child, I had it in my hands, I was given no other option, I just didn't know what to do ... I put it in the toilet and I had what they call afterbirth everywhere and I was thinking what poor woman wants to come into the cubicle after me," she said.
"I tried to tidy it up a bit because it was just a mess."
A short time later Ms Whiteside was found a bed, was given an ultrasound and saw a doctor.
She was offered surgery or told she could go home, and was then told that thousands of women had gone through what she had just experienced.
Ms Whiteside chose to go home and has since written letters of complaint to the hospital and NSW Health Minister.
