The bedside exam is often maligned in favor of technology. It is often easier to order an echo and get a chest xray than it is to listen with a stethoscope. Sometimes technology isn't better. Take this case reported in the NYT. Seven babies turned into eight, by the act of diligent bed side exam. And no ultrasound in the world was able to find this little two pounder.
Great. Now they're going to have to buy extra diapers. I wonder what would happen if nobody had found that baby and mom was sewed back up. Assuming it had its own placenta, would it continue to grow up to the due date? Can you imagine. Going home to start your family, then coming back nine (they were born at 31 weeks) weeks later to deliver your last. Wouldn't that be something. You probably wouldn't even know you were still pregnant. And your belly size probably wouldn't give you any clues.
(Thanks to a reader for this link)
Do you think her insurance company will only pay for the first delivery because the others were incidental?
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine the shitting in the pants of the neonatalogists when they realized that they were set up for only 7 babies?
ReplyDeleteIt's been reported the mother is "fairly young", has six other children (aged 7, 6, 5, 3 and 2 year old twins), had fertility treatments, and refused selective reduction. She lives at home with her parents, while her contract worker husband is due to return to Iraq. Sheesh. What were they thinking, and who they expect to pay for everything from food and clothes to medical care (especially if they continue to live in California, where The Medical Quack recently reported on the growing shortage of pediatric hospital beds and shrinking number of pediatricians, not to mention the state's finances.) Boggles my mind...
ReplyDeleteYou are right. It's a good thing they saw and removed that last baby. And all along, we just thought leaving a SPONGE or INSTRUMENT in the patient was bad form.
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