Swedish doc sews up urethra after C-section

A Swedish woman has reported a hospital in central Sweden to the country's health authorities after the surgeon sewed up her urethra when stitching her up following a Caesarian-section delivery.

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”I felt terrible after the operation and told them this several times at the maternity ward. Among other things I had terrible back pain,” the woman wrote in her report to the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen).

The baby had to be delivered by an emergency C-section and the mother's uterus burst during the procedure, forcing the surgeon to work on her for two hours after the delivery.

”I was awake and heard the doctor stitch and rip up, stitch and rip up, until he was certain he had sewn up the uterus the right way,” the woman wrote.

After the procedure the woman was plagued with severe back pain.

The nurses at the maternity ward told her it was connected to breast feeding, something the woman disagreed with, as it was not being her first child.

Despite the woman's complaints she was only given hot water bottles to help alleviate the pain and after a few days at the clinic she was sent home, despite having an elevated temperature.

”They said it was OK as long as I was feeling all right otherwise. I tried to say that I was in terrible pain, but they said that it wasn't so surprising after the operation I had been through,” the woman wrote.

Two days later she was admitted to the hospital again.

She was in excruciating pain and instead of the expected postpartum discharge, large amounts of clear fluid came rushing out of her.

She was given penicillin, but after a few more trips back and forth to the hospital, she saw a different doctor, who suspected damage to the urethra, saying that the clear liquid discharge could perhaps be urine.

It was impossible to predict the magnitude of the damage without opening her up again, and shortly thereafter, the woman went under the knife for a second time.

Upon awakening she was told that the first surgeon had stitched up her urethra by mistake at the previous procedure, causing large quantities of urine to leak out into her body.

After removing some of the urethra which was by now dead tissue, the surgeons were able to correct the mistake.

The woman decided to report the incident to the National Board of Health and Welfare, saying that she felt as if the whole procedure had been handled badly and that no one had taken her seriously when she complained about the pain she was in.

Rebecca Martin
twitter.com/darlinbec