Kirandeep Kaur Mangat was getting ready to go to bed on May 12 when she started feeling severe pain. Mangat, who lives in Surrey, BC and was 18 weeks pregnant at the time, called 911. After being told ambulance wait times ranged from 25 minutes to an hour, Mangat’s husband Rajinder decided to drive her to Surrey Memorial Hospital in Help Wanted. But instead of receiving emergency treatment, Mangat says she endured a harrowing ordeal that ended with a miscarriage in a hospital room after a doctor told her to go home for the night. “I was shocked. I was sitting on the bed, quiet, not saying a word, traumatized,” Mangat said. Now she is speaking out about the inadequate level of care she says she received at Surrey Memorial’s emergency room. Fraser Health has expressed its condolences to Mangat and her family for their loss, but the health authority declined to immediately comment on her case.
‘Come back tomorrow’
Mangat says her hospital experience was upsetting from the start. She claims the emergency doctor took more than two hours to attend to her and was then told there were no ultrasound machines available to examine her. She says despite telling the doctor something was wrong with her pregnancy, the doctor prescribed morphine and told her to go home and “come back tomorrow.” Mangat says the pain continued to increase as the minutes passed and she ended up having a miscarriage in the hospital room with only her husband present. “I was suffering and the nurses left and meanwhile the baby was released,” Mangat said. Mangat said she left Surrey Memorial Hospital without a health check or mental health support after her miscarriage. (Kiran Singh/CBC) Mangat claims her husband went to get help several times while she was having the miscarriage, but no one attended to her until she held the fetus in her hands. She said she asked a nurse for a container to put the embryo in so it could be sent to a pathology lab, but was told they didn’t have a suitable container. The nurse then asked Mangat and her husband to leave without any further examination. “They didn’t even check my health, whether I’m fine or not, they just asked us to leave,” Mangat said. “We got home at 3 [a.m.] without any moral support, without any help from the staff.” CBC News has seen Mangat’s hospital records, which confirm she had a miscarriage on May 13.
Condolence
Mangat says she has yet to hear any satisfactory response from Fraser Health about the way she claims she was treated at Surrey Memorial. Following a complaint to the Department of Health on May 14, it was redirected to Fraser Health. He received an email from the health authority on June 20 offering condolences and offering to direct Mangat’s complaint to the appropriate person. In an email sent to the CBC, Fraser Health said a patient who miscarries while in the emergency department can be contacted by a social worker before leaving the hospital “to ensure their physical and mental well-being.” But Mangat says she was offered no support until more than a month later when, in an email on June 22, Fraser Health offered to put her in touch with the authority’s social worker at Surrey Memorial’s family birth unit. Other than those two emails acknowledging Mangat’s complaint and offering to connect her with a social worker, Mangat says Fraser Health has not addressed any of her concerns about her experience at the hospital. According to the authority’s website, Fraser Health can take up to 40 business days to respond to a complaint, including “any decisions and actions taken as a result [the] complaint.”
The mother’s safety is a priority: doctor
Experts stress the importance of immediate help, both physical and psychological, for anyone experiencing a miscarriage. Dr. Anthony Fong, a member of the BC Emergency Medicine Network and a clinical assistant professor in UBC’s Department of Emergency Medicine, says the mother’s safety is the priority. “The most important thing really in a miscarriage is to make sure that there is no life-threatening bleeding and that there are no other complications, such as an infection,” she said. Dr. Diane Francoeur, CEO of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada, says anyone who loses a child needs exceptional care and companionship, including services that hospitals can provide in terms of psychological support. “What we have to remember as health care providers is that any time a woman loses a child, she shouldn’t be left alone,” she said. Neither Fong nor Francoeur commented specifically on Mangat’s case. Mangat says she has yet to hear any satisfactory response from Fraser Health about the way she claims she was treated at Surrey Memorial. (Ben Nelms/CBC) Mangat says the trauma of her experience has stayed with her and her husband. “Tears come to my eyes suddenly without saying anything,” she said. “We’re still struggling with this situation. It’s really difficult.” He says no one should have to go through what he went through and calls on Fraser Health to “make the system better”. “They can’t pay me, but I’m trying to get this thing in front of everyone so we can find a solution so it doesn’t happen again in the future. That’s my only motivation.” This story is part of Situation Critical, a series from CBC British Columbia that reports on the barriers people in this province face in accessing timely and appropriate health care. (CBC)
