After being in false labour (according to the doctors) throughout the night, dawn finally broke and exactly at 9:45am, I gave her a light kiss and she was wheeled into the surgery room. Two hours later, a cute little bundle of joy was brought out, a baby girl. The mother was reported to be under tidying up and was eventually wheeled into the ward like one and half hours after, all shaky and white. Few minutes after, she entered into convulsion and off! she goes. On her death certificate, the words were carefully written;

time of death - 2:15pm
cause of death - eclampsia

A lot of unconnected dots but I totally lacked the strength, the psychological will and resources to ask the right questions then. Having read through series of resources in an effort to connect the dots together, something still misses. Perhaps the specialists on steemit might be able to finally let me out of this darkness, knowing very well that I am just a Botanist, not a medial doctor.

My understanding of eclampsia so far

According to several sources, eclampsia is a medical condition in pregnant women representing a complicated form of pre-eclampsia and characterized by onset of convulsion in the affected person.

Pre-eclampsia on its own is a pregnancy disorder featured by high blood pressure, presence of proteins in urine (proteinuria)as well as organ dysfunction. Both eclampsia and pre-eclampsia are categorized under hypertensive disorders of pregnancies although eclampsia without hypertension and proteinuria has been shown to occur in 38% of cases in the United Kingdom. Statistics has it that 10% of all pregnancies are associated with hypertensive disorders while one out of two hundred women with pre-eclampsia develops eclampsia. It is really a tough one for pregnant women with first timers, pregnant women over 40 years of age, those with history of high blood pressure before pregnancy, those with history of pre-eclampsia, carrying more than one baby, history of obesity among many others at higher risk of eclampsia.

Eclampsia occur during or after 20th week of pregnancy or during the post partum period. It has no known cause and is typically diagnosed by tests involving counting of red blood cells and platelets to assess how well the blood is clothing as well as test kidney and liver functions. Creatinine tests can also be done to check the proper functioning of the kidney while urine can be tested for presence of proteins and its excretion rate.

Eclampsia involving seizures can usually be managed by anticonvulsant drugs. High blood pressures can be managed by low-dose aspirin while in most cases, complete cure can only be achieved by taking early delivery of the baby especially if the condition is life threatening. It is only in rare cases that it leads to death.

Why do I have issues with the doctors?

The whole episode started few weeks to her expected delivery date when one of the ante-natal scans showed that there was an unidentifiable water-like structure around the head of the foetus.

The consultant ordered another scan and later advised her to take elective caesarean section for the health of the baby. She was never told she was at risk herself. She went into false labour immediately while the sectioning was scheduled for the next day. I asked if the sectioning could be done earlier due to the labouring but all my questions fell on deaf ears. So she actually laboured for almost 18 hours before the sectioning was done. Yes, she had a bit of high blood pressure during the pregnancy but we were never told anything like pre-eclampsia. I also felt the sectioning took too much time, though I would not know because I am not a doctor. The baby came out fine, the mother came out semi fine before going into convulsion and then death. I felt aggrieved and still feeling aggrieved up till today. I felt something could have been done. She was 25, no history of high blood pressure, no obesity, no family history of pre-eclampsia and most importantly, the consultant never mentioned pre-eclampsia to us throughout the period of her pregnancy. The dots do not just connect for me.

Am I just the one feeling paranoid or something is amiss? I suspect negligence from the part of the doctors but like I said, I am not a professional in this field. I will like the professionals to enlighten me.

Please leave a comment and resteem for the professionals to contribute.

Image Credit
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References
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