Hospital gave my NEWBORN Hep. B vax when I CLEARLY said NO!!

[Celticqueen]

It was 5 months ago, but I'm just now posting it. My anger has boiled more and more since his birth in January.

So basically, I gave birth in a hospital. After taking me to my room, a nurse came in and said, "Ok, we need to take him to check his vitals and give him his Hep. B vaccine." I then said, "No, we're declining the vaccine." At first she was surprised but then she said, "Ok that's fine. We won't give him one then". She then carted my precious baby back into my room an hour later and said word for word, "Here's your baby. Oops! On my records here, it looks like the nurse I gave him to gave him the Hep. B vaccine anyway. I must have forgot to tell her! Sorry."

?!?!?!?!?!?!?

How completely careless of her.

I realize we aren't perfect and we as humans forget things and make mistakes, but I think this is more serious.

To be honest, I'm scared now. I hate thinking that my newborn baby was injected with Heppatitis B. What if this causes long-term damage? Is there a way to tell? I'm still so upset about the whole thing I thought I'd share.

Thoughts?

[Juvysen]

Wow... that sounds like a lawsuit in the makings. I'm dumbfounded.

[zoebird]

i don't know if there's a way to tell if he's hurt, but i am really sorry that this happened to you (and him specificly! poor baby!).

i would write a letter to the hospital about the situation. if nothing else, her supervisor should know about her error. if she's forgetting to tell about this, then she may be forgetting to tell about other things. and those other things could be life-threatening to the patients.

[shalena]

OMG!! I'd be LIVID!

I would definatly make contact with the hospital and let them know what happened. If anything, a true apology is in order.

I'm so sorry mama.

[Celticqueen]

Originally Posted by Juvysen

Wow... that sounds like a lawsuit in the makings. I'm dumbfounded.

That was my husband's and my first thought as well but then we thought about the fact that if we birth there again, they will hate us. Although, I don't know if I want to birth there again anyway :

[crysmomofthree]

s I"m sorry that happened but I would be pursuing legal action. That is so careless

[Celticqueen]

Originally Posted by shalena

OMG!! I'd be LIVID!

I would definatly make contact with the hospital and let them know what happened. If anything, a true apology is in order.

I'm so sorry mama.

I agree. I am going to talk to DH about writing a letter. They need to be respectful of those moms who do NOT want there precious newborns injected with diseases.

[alegna]

You'd never win a lawsuit.

It's the standard of care and you'd never be able to *prove* damage (PERHAPS if the child died in the next 12 hours... maybe).

I'm sorry this happened to you.


This is a reason I will never birth in hospitals short of an emergency. IF I did end up there, the baby would never, NEVER leave my or my dh's sight. For anything. Ever.

-Angela

[Celticqueen]

Originally Posted by alegna

You'd never win a lawsuit.

It's the standard of care and you'd never be able to *prove* damage (PERHAPS if the child died in the next 12 hours... maybe).

I was thinking the same thing

[bdavis337]

Sadly, unless you had your vax refusal in writing, you've not really got a legal case to stand on. Even then, it would be tenuous.

IN the future, should you choose to birth in a hospital or birth center, be sure baby is attended by a parent/guardian at all times, even during those routine weight/health checks, and be sure that person is a vocal, ready-to-defend kind of person. Dont' ever leave Baby alone with a health care worker.

[Shelsi]

Originally Posted by alegna

You'd never win a lawsuit.

It's the standard of care and you'd never be able to *prove* damage (PERHAPS if the child died in the next 12 hours... maybe).

I'm sorry this happened to you.


This is a reason I will never birth in hospitals short of an emergency. IF I did end up there, the baby would never, NEVER leave my or my dh's sight. For anything. Ever.

-Angela

Yeah I was thinking the same. First off you probably signed paperwork when being admitted allowing them to do the routine newborn procedures. Also, in many states, they must have advance notice (i.e before you're admitted) that you will be declining newborn procedures.

[RiverSky]

That sucks, OP. I'm so sorry.

Originally Posted by alegna

IF I did end up there, the baby would never, NEVER leave my or my dh's sight. For anything. Ever.

-Angela

I had both of my children in a hospital but never ever let the children out of my sight even though they tried to take them out of the room, I refused to let them without DH going along. I wish so much that EVERYONE knew that!

p.s. off to remind my pregnant sister....

[runes]

Originally Posted by RiverSky

That sucks, OP. I'm so sorry.



I had both of my children in a hospital but never ever let the children out of my sight even though they tried to take them out of the room, I refused to let them without DH going along. I wish so much that EVERYONE knew that!

p.s. off to remind my pregnant sister....

yep, i wish everyone knew that, too.

we ended up transferring to the hospital from our homebirth, and they tried several times to take dd out of our room to do newborn procedures in the name of dh and i "getting some rest". although i do appreciate the sentiment, i think it's at best a way to keep things rolling smoothly in the unit to not have pesky parents question and possibly decline certain procedures.

i had a horribly traumatic birth and i was completely spent and my body worked over, but there i was that night (it was probably 2-3 am), standing over my precious dd in the nurses station as they did the pku/newborn screening. they had an 'assembly line' of babies in rolling bassinets in there, and of the 5 babies in there, i was the ONLY mama. at first i thought our nurse was irked that i stood and watched and stroked and comforted dd as they did the heel stick. she later said that she loves it when the moms come, because the babies are so much calmer and it all goes better. i just couldn't imagine letting her out of our sights.

we had to decline the hep b verbally and in writing several times, including once when i was alone in the room with dd when dh went to get us some food. the b!tchy pediatric resident came in and accosted me for declining the hep b, and in my postpartum hormonal glory i started shaking and bawling with anger, frustration and sadness. finally she sic'ed the attending pediatrician on me in a really manipulative way (huffily saying "well, i'm just going to have to talk to dr. so and so about this situation" and rolling her eyes at me). luckily, the attending ped had much better bedside manner and she actually gave the resident a talking to.

that's the climate that we women walk into when we, by choice or by circumstance, end up birthing our babies in an institutionalized setting. and it's something you need to prepare for if you're going to go against the system in any way.

i'm so sorry this happened to you. i would definitely file a complaint with the hospital and also the medical board...these kinds of 'mistakes' are rarely caught and reported and it needs to be done to keep them accountable for their actions.

[bluegrassgirl]

Can a hospital ACTUALLY give a newborn a shot that you don't want done?! That sounds immoral.

If I have another baby, I'll have to have it in a hospital, so do I just bring paperwork with me, stating no vaccinations and other stuff I don't want done? Has anyone ever been forced to have a baby get a shot with a court order?
I had read in this book "Born In The USA" about how some OB/GYN's are so pushy that they've actualy got court orders against mom's in labor in order to do certain procedures. Just the thought of that makes me shudder.

Jessie
(single mommy to Emma, 3 years and Angela, 2 years)

[ckhagen]

Something similar happened to me.

I had a very rough c-section and was very drugged. I told the nurse we were declining the Hep B vaccine. She proceeded to argue with me that state law required it. I was so drugged that I did my best to argue with her, but I apparently passed out in the middle of my argument and she took him and did it anyway without my permission It makes me so sad that I was so disrespected. It took me weeks to realize what even happened.

[applejuice]

Try to see if you can at least get the lot and batch numbers in case there is a problem with that particular run. Keep it in your records.

[Quindin]

Ugh!!! Hep B! With my 3rd baby they did not do the same to me exactly, but what they did caused the same results:

After I refused the Hep B shots, a doctor and 2 nurses came to my room and LIED about my records saying that I had tested positive for Hep B so my baby would be in danger if he did not get the vac! I said it was impossible because I knew for a fact my blood work was normal, and then they said: "Well, it says here you have it. Are you going to risk your baby's life? And social services would not like to know about that" I was all alone in the hospital, exhausted, confused and scared - so I said yes! :

I did not believe all the horror stories about hospital bullying and methods - I had to experience it to believe it :

[Finch]

In my 10 years of labor and delivery, NICU, mother-baby, and newborn nursery nursing at the 3 hospitals where I've worked, we have always had to get consent for hepB. No consent, no shot.

What happened is battery. It is illegal. You have a case. I would pursue it.

[CEG]

I am a nurse and in my state we must get a separate consent form signed for the Hepatitis B vaccine. I am assuming you didn't sign that- ours is very clearly for Hep B and nothing else. If that's the case, this is a major incident and should not go unreported. This is no different than a patient getting the wrong medicine or the wrong dose of medicine.

I would call the hospital patient representative or similar (I wouldn't call the unit manager as I think there would be a tendency to keep it quiet.) This nurse had no respect for your wishes, in addition to committing a major professional error. If you aren't being taken seriously I would mumble about a lawsuit to get them to take some action.

I'm sure you're not the kind of person that would do this just to get the nurse in trouble, but to get her to realize the error she made. Maybe if you take some action the next person will get their wishes respected. The nurse will probably have some sort of write up that goes into her personnel file but you can bet she won't do the same thing again. And that the other nurses will hear about it.

Editing to add: you would actually be good to consider making a complaint to the state- maybe the regulatory commission? I am not sure exactly but the more I think about it, the worse this is.

[CEG]

Originally Posted by polihaupt

Ugh!!! Hep B! With my 3rd baby they did not do the same to me exactly, but what they did caused the same results:

After I refused the Hep B shots, a doctor and 2 nurses came to my room and LIED about my records saying that I had tested positive for Hep B so my baby would be in danger if he did not get the vac! I said it was impossible because I knew for a fact my blood work was normal, and then they said: "Well, it says here you have it. Are you going to risk your baby's life? And social services would not like to know about that" I was all alone in the hospital, exhausted, confused and scared - so I said yes! :

I did not believe all the horror stories about hospital bullying and methods - I had to experience it to believe it :

You may already know this but for future reference that Hep B shot will not protect a baby who has been exposed to hep b in utero or in birth. Its inappropriate to give an exposed baby the vaccine. Those babies are given immunoglobulins after birth to prevent further infection. Just in case it ever was an issue for you again- either they didn't know what they were talking about or they are especially bold liars. Sorry it happened to you.