For Sqad Or Any Med Professional Mainly - Ectopic Pregnanct Issue

[joko]

When i was about 24 (1994-5) I had an ectopic pregnancy.
I also have PCOS so it was a surprise.

I was in pain & had to go to hospital i think around 7-8 weeks
The docs did a D&C, then did a scan to check it was all gone - but i was still pregnant!
The scan showed a normal heartbeat in the uterus on the monitor!
The nurse was smiling & seemed to assume i was happy - it seemed like she hadn't checked why i was having the scan or something??
I was quite unnerved by her reaction, i didn't say anything to her.

So an abortion was scheduled for a date in the future & i went home.

I'm assuming the foetus didn't survive very long after that scan, as i know a D&C would be a traumatic procedure for it, & you can't move a foetus & replant it elsewhere, so it must have either been very firmly implanted in the first place & was only moved near the end of the D&C??
Or it somehow miraculously did implant??
Or it just survived long enough for the scan??

It was all a bit confusing, & when i went to have it removed, they didn't seem to know the situation either, & treated me like all the other women getting abortions.
1 or 2 nurses probably shouldn't have been on that ward, you could feel their disdain for the women.

I remember telling the surgeon, just before they knocked me out, that if the foetus is still there & ok, I don't want to keep it, & he just sort of smiled & said ok & just carried on what he was doing.

Looking back, it should have been clear to them that I didn't quite know what the plan was or what had happened to the foetus.
i assumed they were going to check to see if the foetus was OK first, & if not, they'd remove it, but if it was ok, they'd just send me home to carry on with the pregnancy!

I didn't realise i was in a specific proper abortion ward/clinic & they weren't checking anything, just doing the procedure, same as all the others.

That surgeon & other around must have wondered why I said that to him?
Even at that point, I still didn't know properly what was going on.


Is it possible for me to get more details of this from the hospital - like proper info - surely if it was so unusual, there'd be notes, right?
Unless someone thought they'd messed up the D&C so were vague??

I'd really like to know, because it seems an ectopic foetus surviving a D&C is considered basically impossible - so why was hardly anything said about it to me, it was all very perfunctory.
There was no sense of them being amazed.

Unless this is actually quite common & the impossible part is of it surviving for any length of time.

I felt very ill at home, waiting for the abortion, couldn't eat, could only eat, pineapple & jelly sweets.

I'd really like to know what happened - Ive downloaded my med history from my GP but its really terrible, very vague, hardly any info - and theres no record of the ectopic pregnancy, the D&D, the abortion etc - none of it!
Theres nothing there from before about 1995 - just allergies & immunisations.

GP notes were paper then - so were these notes just never copied over?

Any ideas what to do?

Or does anyone know of any similar cases where I get an idea of what likely happened to me?

I've googled but i'm not really sure what to look for, as i don't really know what happened

Thanks for any help
:)

[ParsleyDumpling]

You make the request to your GP practice. You do not need to speak to a doctor, ask at reception. You may need to show photo ID.

[bednobs]

https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/how-can-we-help/how-do-i-get-a-copy-of-my-health-medical-records/
asking your GP wont get your hospital records

[rowanwitch]

They only diagnose an ectopic with an ultrasound,or on clinical signs if no ultrasound is available. I did gynae nursing for some time and never heard of a d&c used as a diagnostic procedure for ectopic as it would waste too much time. It was always scan then straight to theatre for surgical removal of the tube. They cannot suck out the tube the suction catheter is too large and there would be too much risk of bloodloss . Suction reduces pretty much everything to a liquid so wouldn't leave a viable foetus. The only thing I can think of that might fit your description but can't find anything to say it has happened before is a twin pregnancy one in a tube, one in the uterus. TB H. I don't think you were given anything like correct information, not uncommon back in the day.

[rowanwitch]

You can make the request via the data protection team . They can charge a few for the access to notes.

[joko]

Rowan check out that link i posted - apparently D&C is quite common in ectopic pregnancies

[joko]

rowan - I'm not saying they used the instruments to suck it out of the tube deliberately, I'm saying the power of that procedure must have inadvertently dislodged it, especially if it was right near the end of the tube.
i don't know, but if it was in the uterus already the d&c would have removed it, so it can't have been there beforehand.

[joko]

Well according to this well known & respected medical journal, in some rarer types of ectopic pregnancy, not only can some foetuses survive, they can even be born healthy!
I was only looking to see if they could survive for a bit!

So another possibility of what happened is that when they said ectopic, they meant either somewhere other than the tube, or too far into the tube, but I assumed they meant in the tube - as thats what i thought ectopic meant - as i think most people do.

Doesnt exactly answer how it moved or how it was somehow there all along yet survived a D&C.
But this shows all sorts of rare & unusual things can happen.

i do intend to try to get my medical notes so i'll follow up if i do

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7360401/