03 September 2008

Epidurals don't always work!

And I thought having a caesarean was bad with pain medication...

A woman in the UK is planning to sue her hospital for failing to give her proper pain medication during an emergency caesarean. After an epidural, Sarah Carberry, 27 says she could still wiggle her toes and feel her legs but her doctors said that was 'normal'. When they started to cut into her womb, she was quite understandably in agony.

Note to self: wiggling body parts before major surgery = not good

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2660774/Mother-sues-hospital-over-caesarian-birth-without-pain-relief.html

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It is perfectly normal to be able to wiggle your toes, or even walk, after modern epidurals. If the blogger knew anything about what she was talking about she'd know that the wiggling does not mean you can feel a skerrick of pain.

Also a spinal is more common for an emergency c-section because it is much more quickly administered.

I suspect it was a spinal that failed, not an epidural. In any event pilot error doesn't mean we should ground all the planes. General anesthetics also fail occasionally during surgery - should we just give the patient a bump on the head and some whiskey because there's no point to a GA?

Finally - not surprising this story came out of the UK, it is even more backward in the provision of pain relief than Australia. They still give GAS there for heaven's sake!

So before the poor woman sues I suggest she works out it was spinal that failed, that it was merely an individual Dr's error and eschews any thought of campaigning against other women having pleasantly pain free births with epidurals.

 
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