Husband mulls legal action against hospital

NST: JOHOR BARU: A woman, whose pregnancy was due, was left bleeding for more than two hours at a hospital emergency ward in Kulai before the doctor decided she should be referred to another hospital.
And because of a series of unfortunate events, her unborn son was pronounced dead on arrival at the Sultanah Aminah Hospital (HSA) here.
It started when Nurulhudah Othman, 29, who was suffering from pregnancy induced hypertension, or pre-eclampsia, was admitted to the Temenggong Ibrahim Hospital (HTI) in Kulai on May 7.
Two days later, she was allowed home but about 11.30am on May 9, Nurulhudah’s water burst and she started bleeding profusely.
She was rushed to HTI in an ambulance.
The HTI doctor, after cheking her, decided that it was not time yet for her to deliver and made her wait.
When the bleeding did not subside after two hours, the doctor in charge said they did not have enough blood at HTI to perform a Caesarean on Nurulhudah and decided that she should be referred to HSA.
She was bundled into an ambulance but halfway along the journey, one of the medical personnel realised that they had forgotten Nurulhudah’s medical records.
The ambulance was then forced to make a U-turn back to HTI which is about 40km away from HSA.
When they arrived at HSA at about 4pm, the unborn baby was pronounced dead.
Nurulhudah’s husband, Mohd Fetri A Razak, 30, a technician, who was with his wife throughout the ordeal was devastated and regretted the way HTI handled the situation.
"We can accept the death of our unborn son, but the way the hospital handled the emergency situation is unacceptable," he said when met at his home in Taman Desa, Kulai here.
He said the doctor at HSA explained that the placenta was already detached from the womb, thus cutting off the oxygen supply to the baby.
Mohd Fetri said he is considering legal action against HTI for negligence, adding that this is not the first time they had encountered problems with the hospital.
He claimed that when Nurulhudah delivered their first daughter six years ago, she suffered a retained placenta in her womb after a nurse failed to completely remove it after birth.