Father forced to deliver his own child, followed by a Bureaucratic Paperwork Nightmare
Sioux Falls, SD. 9-23-14 by Devin Saxon. No words can compliment the miracle and joy of bringing a new child into this world, and in America we are ever blessed with many privileges to experience this miracle in a safe and healthy environment, provided to us by our exceptional Midwestern Medical Care. Exceptional care, which unfortunately was absent in becoming of one young Sioux Falls family’s experience in attaining their critical health care needs. According to the testimony of the family, who have requested their anonymity, while recently acquiring their medical care this past September 6th, at the Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center in Sioux Falls, SD, they claim to have found themselves uncomfortably distraught in learning of the deprived standards in safety and promptness of health care that Avera McKennan has provided for them and their new born daughter.
Hoping, as any expecting mother would while in labor with her second child, that she would be in a safe, healthy, and comfortable environment during one of the most cherished and memorable moments that any mother could experience when expecting a new addition to her family, soon found only a cruel bafflement of all common sense, and a total lack of medical professionalism; as the mother was later refused admittance to Avera McKennan, while in labor, and then subsequently expedited from the hospital on an account of a later self-admitted medical misjudgment by Avera’s own Obstetrics Medical Staff. According to the mother’s testimony, even after advising Avera’s Obstetrics Medical Staff on her past experience in labor during her prior pregnancy, and that she was then sure to be expecting to give birth at any moment, she was then inadvertently sent home to care for herself during those crucial moments. To the family’s dismay, Avera McKennan’s Obstetrics Staff advised the family that the mother was in fact “not in labor”, and the family would be best to return home. Only hours later, the father soon found himself forced to dial for the aid and advisement of 911 Emergency Operators to deliver his own child at the family’s residence in Sioux Falls.
When I asked the father what was going through his head after being denied professional medical treatment from Avera McKennan, and then afterwards consequently being unexpectedly forced to deliver his own child? Adding that not many fathers have had the honor of that experience; the father replied, “I was on the phone with 911, and just trying to focus on what I needed to do during those moments.” After the successful delivery of their daughter by the father, and upon the family returning to Avera McKennan to receive emergency medical treatment, the medical staff acknowledged to the family that they had initially made an error during the family’s prior visit and admitted they should not have released the mother from the hospital’s care. Although admitting to have put the mother and her new born daughter lives in danger by negligently releasing them from the hospital’s professional care, all while the mother was in labor and in urgent need, Avera McKennan then followed the crude apology by once again prematurely releasing the mother from their care while she was still ill from her delivery; Avera insisting that her Medicaid would not offer her any additional coverage to stay at the hospital any longer.
The family, appalled by the lack of common courtesy provided by Avera McKennan’s Obstetrics Department, to their horror, soon experienced even more complications after which sent the family on a hellish bureaucratic nightmare and wild goose chase in acquiring a birth certificate for their child; as was later explained to the family by Avera’s staff that because their daughter was not born at the hospital, Avera McKennan was not liable for providing any further assistance in notarizing their due proper paperwork required from all American Citizens by law in attaining the benefits of citizenship in the United States. Thankfully however for the family, their new born daughter is healthy, and although events did not transpire as they would have hoped, the family remains grateful. Considering the circumstances, and as unsettling as their experiences were, they were both fortunate to be spared the horror that was deviled upon another expecting couple sharing similar mistreatment by medical staff, as reported by David Wilkes of the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-136381/Baby-dies-woman-labour-sent-home.html ), where at an unrelated hospital, medical officials had also refused admittance of a young mother in labor, while she had also plead for treatment, leading hours later to the stillborn death of her child. In that case the medical staff had also shared a similar discontentment with their patients; even after informing that particular family that their child no longer had a pulse.
Dakotaz Free Press 