This review isn’t the result of my baby dying just shy of 24-week viability. Instead, this post is motivated by the desire to protect women from encountering situations where their well-being and the life of their child depends on physicians (Dr. Sara Haidar for instance), at Eastside, who together have formed a disjointed and lackadaisical practice group. My pregnancy (twins) took an unfortunate turn around 20 weeks. I was hospitalized twice – first at Beaumont and then Ascension. At Beaumont, Eastside discharged me against the wishes of the attending doctor. I later learned Eastside should never have directed me to Beaumont in the first place because the high risk doctors and the NICU are located at Ascension. Shortly after Eastside discharged me from Beaumont, my water broke and I was admitted to Ascension. The twin whose amniotic sac broke passed away and I was hospitalized for 2 months to monitor the surviving twin. While hospitalized, I met 6 Eastside OBs. Each day, an OB would briefly visit my room to ask me the same 4 questions (any changes?, pain?…etc.). These visits were superficial. One OB in particular had a habit of standing over my bed with her purse in my face. The OBs rarely ventured beyond the 4 questions. For instance, no one screened me for things like perinatal depression. After 2 months, I was eventually discharged from Ascension. The discharge process was clunky and uncoordinated. The OBs from Eastside stopped visiting my hospital room a few days before discharge. And prior to that, when they were still visiting, the Eastside OBs refused to discuss discharge because they wanted to cross that bridge when we got there. As a result, when I was discharged, I had no idea what the next steps were in terms of medical care. Because of this information void, I called my family physician who referred me to a real high risk doctor (MFM/perinatologist) to monitor the pregnancy. The high risk doctor immediately scheduled me for NSTs and ultrasounds. Unfortunately, for reasons too lengthy to explain, the high risk doctor could only monitor the pregnancy thus I still relied on Eastside for delivery. By the time I was discharged, it was clear that none of the physicians at Eastside had collaborated on a plan for my pregnancy. This became especially apparent when I called Eastside shortly after discharge to set up my first post-hospitalization appointment and was informed by the receptionist that I had nearly been dropped as a patient because I should have scheduled a post-hospitalization appt for the day after discharge. From here, my appointments at Eastside went sideways. The OB that my friends had recommended displayed no discernible interest in the progress of my pregnancy. Instead, I would show up, the OB would say something like “you’re still pregnant,” and that was the visit. Eventually, I made it far enough into the 3rd trimester that it was time to discuss delivery. But when this time came, the OB mentioned for the first time that he was reluctant to perform my c-section. The timing of this disclosure was horrendous. My baby was ready to be delivered and there wasn’t time to find a new surgeon. For any who might be wondering, there was no conflict between myself and Eastside. The Eastside staff (receptionists and nurses) were incredibly nice. And despite how disappointing I found Eastside’s OB/Gyns, I never exchanged harsh words with anyone. In part because I needed Eastside to safely deliver my child, and partly because there’s no point spending energy on people who don’t care or who lack the ability to do better. TLDR: my pregnancy went spectacularly off the rails and none of the physicians at Eastside took initiative; they pretended that I was everyone’s patient when, in reality, I was no one’s patient.
by Laura H
xxx.xxx.87.60
April 01, 2023