From The TimesDecember 26, 2008
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary apologises after baby was born on floor
Melanie Reid
A pregnant woman was left unattended for hours and had to give birth on a hospital floor despite her desperate appeals for a bed.
Health board officials have apologised to Lynne Neilson, 36, whose baby started to arrive as she stood, still clothed, in a cold assessment room after hours of waiting to be admitted to the labour ward. As the head appeared, a midwife ran in just in time to put a paper mat on the floor and catch the baby, who had the umbilical cord around her neck.
Mrs Neilson and her husband, Gavin, made an official complaint to the hospital and to Nicola Sturgeon, the Health Minister, after the incident at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. NHS Lothian announced on Christmas Eve that it had begun an investigation and had apologised.
The couple had arrived at the Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion early on December 5, but went home when the labour slowed. They returned at 7pm and were told to sit in the waiting room. Contractions quickened and Mr Neilson asked repeatedly for help until his wife, in pain and barely able to walk, was finally moved to an assessment room and examined by a midwife.
Mrs Neilson said: “She said she’d come back in 20 minutes and that’s when it all really went wrong, because she didn’t come back. She was seeing other patients.”
Two and a half hours after they had arrived, their baby, Orla, was born. Mrs Neilson said: “The room we were in was cold. There was a narrow trolley – not a bed – which I couldn’t get up on to. I was shouting out – it was so undignified, because everybody in the waiting room would have been able to hear us. I felt a huge pressure and at that point I knew that the baby was going to be born.”
A midwife arrived just in time to find Orla’s head emerging. Mrs Neilson said: “She took control and put down a disposable mat on the floor. She caught the baby – I was standing up and she was born on to the floor. I was very relieved that the midwife had come, because we were panicking.”
After the birth, Mrs Neilson was helped on to the trolley, but the family waited another hour before being transferred upstairs to a labour ward. They said they were told that the room they were placed in had been vacant throughout Mrs Neilson’s labour.
The couple have three older children, who were born in Glasgow, Hong Kong and at Edinburgh Royal, but said that this was the worst experience they have had in a maternity unit.
David Farquharson, clinical director of women’s services in NHS Lothian, said: “This is not the experience we would want any mother or family to have.”
Ha! I worked at the county hospital in El Paso for many years and labor/delivery dept. was so overloaded there were women delivering in hallways, floors and chairs, all the time. Socialized medicine had nothing to do with it. I don't think it would be farfetched to say that this sort of occurrence is not unusual in poor inner city hospitals.
Ever been in the old Jefferson Davis Hospital in Houston?
No kidding. I put myself through college working in a phonebank that did quality assurance for Utah's largest healthcare provider. And if you think things in the United States medical industry are humming along with no problems, well buddy, I got news for you...
As an aside I'm getting really ing sick of people posting anecdotal observations about isolated news stories or weather events in order to make a broader political point. It's happening more and more... and those of you who are doing it are ing morons IMO. Not only are the people who do this usually wrong in the points they're trying to make, but their rudimentary arguments suck ass. At least try to have some intellectual honesty and coherent argumentation to back up your twisted political beliefs.
I wasn't really trying to be political, just humorous - guess I went about it the wrong way.
When my wife and I were in the hospital getting ready to have my daughter women were coming into the hospital all night yelling in the hallways. I made sure to get plenty of whatever my wife wanted all at once so I wouldn't have to go out there.
It was scary.
Anybody that thinks socialized medicine is a good idea is a flippin IDIOT!
You may be correct. But anybody who thinks the above referenced story occurred because of socialized medicine is equally idiotic.
Welp, I did not know that. [in my best Walter Sobchack voice]
What with the internets sometimes leading to missed cues in tone and all, I'm sure you understand. My bad homie.
I have no idea if that particular incident was related to socialized medicine or not. It's certainly possible though.
Global warming my ass!
Since the story allegedly occurred in Scotland, it's not only possible, but entirely probable that all of the above referrenced actors were drunker than Cooter Brown, so socialized medicine more than likely had nothing whatsoever to do with this.
That would be all who voted for Obama.
it has more to do with hospital funding and growth in population that contributes to this sort of crap.....whether its short of doctors, underpaid nurses, or not enough hospital beds or facility's in certain hospitals, it s up the whole system.
I would rather give birth on a floor than pay 29,000 dollars for a more comfortable table birth.
You can't get medical assistance worth a anymore unless you have insurance. I can't even begin to count the times I've either been turned down for medical care or been forced to live with my ailment because the billing would have exceeded 10,000 dollars. There has got to be some middle ground here somewhere.
You guys at ground zero can and moan about the ers and moaners of isolated incidents but the fact of the matter is that the medical industry is interested in fleecing insurance companies far more than they're interested in serving people in need of medical help.
I'm living proof. If you requires a full breakdown of my health and when and why I've refused or been refused medical care I'll be happy to lay it out. The industry makes me sick.
And by sick I mean in need of medical care that will go untreated or cost me half of my annual income.
Duh.
Politics forum.
What about people who like socialized insurance?
yeah.
it really makes me upset when i think about these things. this country is allowing our citizens to continually get F'ed. health care, wages, everything.
The well being of our own people is only worth the dollars to pay for it. ing sad.
I am sure this lady still believes in our medical system.
Any medical expenses over 7.25% of your income are deductible from your taxable income for the year. For what that is worth.
My opinion about universal health insurance (single payor) is that it makes little difference to me if I have to outlay $7000 per year in taxes or health insurance premiums/copays for my family.
The outlay is the same.
Hospitals ill from more bad debt, credit troubles
Yikes.
Health care crisis is about to be given some steriods.
Fewer and fewer with insurance, and fewer hospitals to treat them.
Ah well. **** the poor, right?
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