A Strandfontein woman has been left traumatised after doctors at a public hospital told her she had lost her baby.
But when the 10-week pregnant woman went for a second opinion at a private gynaecologist, she learnt to her shock that her baby was still alive.
Candice Lakey, 29, says she doesn’t understand how this is possible as she had to undergo a womb scrape after her “miscarriage”.
The mom of two says it was a heartbreaking moment when she had to inform her husband, family and friends she had lost her baby, especially after she’d had a miscarriage in 2015.
Candice says she started spotting last week and rushed to the Mitchells Plain District Hospital where she was told she was having a miscarriage.
“They transferred me to the trauma unit at Mitchells Plain District. The doctor told me my cervix was open and I was busy having a miscarriage because of the bleeding,” Candice explains.
In tears, she was transferred to Victoria Hospital in Wynberg where she was to undergo an evacuation of the uterus and a womb scrape.
NOTE: Sick note about miscarriage
“They told me I still had [some] of the baby in me and need to go into theatre and have everything taken out,” she says. Before I went into theatre, I asked for a scan and the doctor asked why they would do an ultrasound if I had miscarried and it was no use.
“I was shattered and told my family and friends the bad news,” Candice says.
A distraught Candice says she was sedated and taken into theatre: “When I woke up, I asked the sister if everything was done and she had said yes.
“I asked where the doctor was and she told me doctor said I’m fine and could go home, and they would be giving me pills.
“I was not bleeding, even though I was told I would be bleeding for a week. I wanted to leave and the sister told me to sign a red slip and told me I would not be able to come to the hospital again and I agreed.”
But the mom says “something didn’t feel right”, and going with her gut, she sought a second opinion at a gynae.
“He examined me, did an ultrasound and there the baby was. I didn’t believe it until he let me hear my baby’s heartbeat,” says Candice.
FIRST ADMITTED: The Mitchells Plain District Hospital
“What do I tell people now? I was booked off from work, people had been sending me flowers. What did the doctors then do to me in theatre?”
The Department of Health’s district communications officer, Monique Johnstone, says while they sympathise with Candice, she says the mom never had a womb scrape.
“Candice Lakey was referred to Victoria Hospital from the Mitchells Plain Community Health Centre with symptoms of bleeding and backache during her pregnancy. She was triaged and diagnosed at Victoria Hospital’s Emergency Centre with signs of experiencing a partial miscarriage based on her clinical examination on 6 December 2018.”
Johnstone says Candice was never operated on.
“The next morning she was taken to theatre and prior to any procedure, was re-examined but no longer presented with signs of having a miscarriage and the medical team did not proceed with the evacuation of the uterus.”
Doctors would have done an ultrasound but Candice discharged herself.
“The red slip which Candice signed does not state that patients would not be welcomed back at our facilities after they discharge without the doctor’s consent.”