On October 7th 2014 I gave birth to premature fraternal twin girls at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane WA eight weeks early. Both girls had been previously diagnosed each with different birth defects complicating my pregnancy but I was promised by the team at Sacred Heart that they were going to "do everything possible to save your babies". My Baby A had Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) and my Baby B had a Cleft Lip and Palate (CLCP) with Heart Defect. During some shady circumstances my Baby A (Faith) died just after birth, my Baby B (Grace) survived then endured a 7 week long NICU stay where the both of us were treated with callous indifference.
At Sacred Heart I was promised care for my babies by providers that I never received, they promised me a special neonatologist who was the hospital's CDH expert, a pediatric cardiologist, and 2 NICU teams (one for each baby, which is pretty much the industry standard of care for any twin birth) were supposed to be present during the birth to try to save my babies and with the exception of one on-call NICU team none of the above were present (though I was later told there were enough 'nurses' to comprise a second team... ummm yeah that still is bad as both my babies had birth defects requiring serious medical intervention. The (one) on-call doctor (neonatologist, Dr. Rhonda Gretebeck) that treated my babies didn't know what side of the body my Baby A's birth defect was on (and this does actually make a big difference). She didn't know the true severity of the birth defect (it wasn't nearly as bad as she thought). She claimed to not know that my baby was born alive, even though this is basically her job and she was standing right there 4 other people heard my baby cry upon birth. And she only tried briefly to resuscitate her using a bare minimum effort and no chest compressions (chest compressions are actually called for in this circumstance according to the AAP and the AHA). She also tried to classify my baby's death as a fetal demise (stillborn) even though she cried when she was born. Last I checked, stillborn babies don't cry.
It took me FOUR months of talking with the hospital patient relations department, writing letters, and finally getting the attending OBGYN involved to get this changed. I'd like to point out here that a grieving mother should not have to do that.
In keeping with Washington State Defamation Laws, I can provide proof of all that is mentioned here in her medical records and/or by eye witnesses and photos. In Washington state it's not slander if what I say is true.
Prior to birth I met with the Sacred Heart Children's Hospital NICU staff not once, but twice. WHAT I WAS NOT TOLD IN THESE MEETINGS OR EVER: That if I gave birth prematurely and Faith was too little for ECMO (a heart and lung bypass machine for babies) they would discontinue lifesaving efforts after only a few minutes, only put forth a bare minimum effort that looked legal on paper *in my opinion*, to basically prevent them from getting sued, and would not provide the support they promised me.
No one told me that a hospital could make a determination, that went against our wishes, as to whether my baby would receive or not receive life saving care based on a "birth defect". She was well beyond the age of viability at 32 weeks. NO ONE (and I mean NO ONE) TOLD ME that there was an age or weight of viability for NORMAL preemie babies and a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT standard for babies with certain birth defects. In my opinion that right there, is a form of medical discrimination should be illegal.
Even going into the hospital in labor, I still NAIVELY believed that even if her outlook was grim they would still try to save her life as nobody had told me any different. And after all that's what THEY PROMISED ME "that everything would be done to save my babies" said Dr. Barber himself.
*NOW THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT*: We were so determined to fight for our twin daughters that without a doubt if anyone at the hospital would've disclosed this information to us, I would've left Sacred Heart THAT DAY and been in Seattle or Portland for care by sundown, and the truth of the matter is even if they would not have used ECMO on Faith, being accustomed to treating high risk challenging cases such as Faith's, they would've AT LEAST TRIED to resuscitate her, vent her, and explore all options. This I know without a doubt because I called and asked. And that's all I wanted, was for her doctors to fight for my daughter. If she had to die, then at the very least I wanted to know that there was nothing else medically That. Could. Be. Done. I wanted to know that her doctors never gave up on her. I will never ever know that peace, Dr Getebeck denied me that because IMNHO she thought she knew better than the parents. read more
