Epidural gone horribly wrong

[amitymama]

I just came across this story and it made me incredibly sad for the young woman involved. She was given a severe overdose of a painkiller via her epidural and now can hardly walk and has severe pain in her lower back and legs.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...storiesrecache

[Spark]

Aw, that is so sad. Did you see the report about the new mom who got one & ended up a double amputee from complications?

[fourgrtkidos]

Unfortunately, epidural complications are not uncommon. I saw them weekly when I worked L&D/ Mother Baby.

Please consider the risks when getting one. Your spine is your life line do you really want to take the chance???:

[amitymama]

Originally Posted by Spark

Aw, that is so sad. Did you see the report about the new mom who got one & ended up a double amputee from complications?

No, I didn't see that. Do you have a link?

[MsElle07]

My grandmother had partial paralysis in one of her legs from an epidural (not from childbirth, but from another medical procedure). No anesthesia is without risk!

[beckyand3littlemonsters]

how awful for her

i've never liked the idea of epidural, don't like the idea of haveing something stuck in my spine

[beckyand3littlemonsters]

Originally Posted by MsElle07

No anesthesia is without risk!

although imo the fact that epidural goes in your spine does make it a little more risky because just one slip up and you could be parralized for life

[velveeta]

It scares the heck out of me! That poor girl -- her pain is horrible and constant. I hope that it will eventually go away, both for her and for her baby daughter.

The hospital said "human error may have entered into the equation." Uh.... ya think?

[cchrissyy]

how horrible!

[Vortexing]

Not to add/subtract from the horror, last year in my area, there was a teen mom who had the antibiotic IV bag and the epidural bag switched, so the epidural medication was shot directly into her vein and of course, she died (I think it was within the hour, if not 1/2 hour!!!). 16 years old, and she died b/c of a simple accident that could have been prevented/should never have happened.

I know there are many more epidurals given safely than these rare incidents, but still, if that's not motivation not to even risk it, I don't know what is!

[wifeandmom]

Originally Posted by fourgrtkidos

Unfortunately, epidural complications are not uncommon. I saw them weekly when I worked L&D/ Mother Baby.

Please consider the risks when getting one. Your spine is your life line do you really want to take the chance???:

If you honestly saw serious complications WEEKLY working L&D, whomever was having that many complications needed to be reported to the appropriate licensure board.

Serious complications like the one in the OP case are EXTREMELY RARE, and if a provider is having this sort of thing happen on a WEEKLY basis....

Well, to say they have no business being licensed is a serious understatement.

[momof421]

how horrible!

[TCMoulton]

Originally Posted by fourgrtkidos

Unfortunately, epidural complications are not uncommon. I saw them weekly when I worked L&D/ Mother Baby.

Please consider the risks when getting one. Your spine is your life line do you really want to take the chance???:

But in this case it really wasn't the epidural causing the mom's death but the fact that the wrong meds were given through her iv.

Oops - my mistake, I thought that the article said that the mom got the epidural meds in her IV. Sorry about that.