A doctor missed a 35-week pregnancy

That’s a pretty big oversight.

Comments

Anonymous
CC: Insomnia
From the comment “If she had told me that she was pregnant, I would have examined her” suggests that perhaps she didn’t examine her at all.
The three most important things in medicine are history, exam, and ethics. Without those three elements, it isn’t practicing medicine.
Anonymous
I don’t know about this one.
If she went to an eye doctor for refraction, a dermatologist for a rash, an allergist, etc., would the specialists have done an exam which would have revealed the pregnancy?
My read on the case was the patient knew she was pregnant and was concealing it. Did she conceal her pregnancy from the doctor?
Anonymous
My guess is that she was perceived as an obese patient, not obviously pregnant, with an oversubscribed NHS doctor focusing only on the chief complaint. Female patients of childbearing age are routinely asked if they may be pregnant before prescribing medication, even at the ophthalmologist’s or dermatologist’s office. Did she deceive the doctor? She hid the pregnancy from her family who she lived with. How could THEY not notice? How many of you who work in the ER right here in the good ol’ USA have not seen or heard of the patient with abdominal pains who is really in labor and out pops a “surprise”?

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