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Can I sue for medicl malpractice if large pieces of the placenta was left inside of me?

Asked over 2 years ago - Columbus, OH

I had my son July 20 2009 and after he came out the doctors were trying to get the placenta to come out and it was coming out in pieces so the doctor stuck her hand and some of her arm inside of me pulling out pieces of the placenta. They sent me home after my stay in the hospital was over. About 2 weeks later I started experiencing painful cramps heavy bleeding and large blodclots coming out of me. I was in tramendous pain and also bleeding until I called the amubulance to come.They took me back to the same hospital were they gave me blood and performed an DNC.Till this day I'm still experiencing pain in my stomach.

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Alexander Izaak Bozof

Reputation Level 8

Answered over 2 years ago.

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For a malpractice suit to succeed you have to show that what your doctor did was significantly different from what most other doctors would do (or that it deviated from standard practices).

Childbirth is full of complications sometimes and your situation is actually not incredibly rare. Most women have some form of bleeding, cramping, etc for a few weeks after giving birth.

The inability to remove the placenta may not have been malpractice, it may simply have been that it was not releasing from your womb's wall. This is called a retained placenta and usually, a woman is given hormones to cause the body to expel the placenta.

If you were not given hormones, it may be malpractice, but "medmal" claims are VERY tricky and fact-dependent. You need to talk to an attorney in person who can evaluate the facts with some medical oversight (i.e. a consulting physician).

If they sent you home with a retained placenta (and knew it was still inside you) and did not give you hormones, it may be malpractice.

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