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ANGEL PRUNTY — USA
Stillborn December 29, 2008 Prenatal-onset Mother's GBS Status: Not tested Gestational Age: 21 weeks Age harmed: born premature at 21 weeks of pregnancy |
Hello, I am 37 years old and my husband and I have been trying for over 2 years to have a child. I have been diagnosed with positive genetic thrombophilia along with XIII Homozygote. I was put on heparin for 28 weeks along with prednisone for 16 weeks. April of 2008 we got pregnant and miscarried at 6 weeks. Within three months I got pregnant again. Things were going along pretty smoothly and I was very confident that I was going to deliver a healthy baby. My husband and I planned a trip to Europe before we found out we were pregnant. We left December 16th, 2008 for Chamonix, France. That morning I discovered a small dot of blood when I wiped. I told myself it was probably nothing and everything would be fine. We got to New York City 6 hours later and I noticed that the discharge had gotten heavy and it was pink. When I went to the bathroom pink drops (that looked like tissue) would be in the toilet after urinating. I called my OBGYN and they assured me everything was fine. We continued our trip to Europe.
When we got there on December 17th, I decided to rest and take it easy for a few days. This discharge was still strong and had not changed; by Thursday, December 18th I requested to find a doctor. Unfortunately there was no doctor available until Saturday. We decided to check out on Friday, December 19th and head into Interlaken, Switzerland. Once we got there we found a hospital and went in for an exam. They got me in right away and checked my cervix. They had noticed some broken capillaries on my cervix and said it was probably just the heparin I was taking and not to worry. She did an ultrasound and said everything looked good and not to worry. She took a tissue sample and for some reason decided not to send it to the lab. (I can't tell you how I regret that I did not request that in addition to the ultrasound.) We left there somewhat relieved and were confident that everything was going to be okay. That evening I started feeling like I was coming down with a head cold and a cough, but I was not that concerned about it. That morning I woke up soaking wet and felt like my head was congested. As the week went by we decided to travel up to Luzern, Switzerland. Things did not seem to change. Some of the things I noticed a few weeks back was aching legs, lower back pain, and that night we got to Luzern I was having a hard time sleeping because my back hurt. Again, if you read about being pregnant these are normal symptoms.
We left Luzern the next day to travel up to Salzburg, Austria. The train ride was over 6 hours and we were pretty exhausted. We arrived in Salzburg, December 22nd and planned on staying there until December 26th. We did a lot of resting and sat around and watched TV so I was assuming things were going to get much better. In the middle of the night of December 23rd, I went to the bathroom and noticed some blood clotting or some old blood came out when I urinated. It looked just like the pink tissue but dark/black red. I was concerned and went to get my husband and he assured me it was probably old blood and my cervix was healing. Sinse I was having no pain I decided to dismiss it and go back to sleep. We left on Friday, December 26th and headed to Munich, Germany. My back was hurting a lot as well as my butt. I felt like my cervix was pulling apart to get ready for the baby in the months to come. The bleeding started to pickup feeling like a beginning period. I was a little concerned but decided to rest and hope it would go away.
The next day, December 27th, we decided to go shopping and I was trying on clothes in the dressing room and all of sudden blood started pouring out. I was frantic. I came out of the dressing room and told my husband we needed to find a doctor. Within a few hours we found a clinic. She looked at my cervix and said, "I am not sure why you are bleeding. I would go to the hospital." Within an hour I was checked in to the hospital and they did an ultrasound and checked my cervix to see if I was dilating. They were concerned about my cervix. It should have been at 4 cm and it was 2.5 cm. They told me that the baby looked good and all the fluid was in there but my cervix was slightly open. They told me if I had an infection that it is probably not likely to be inside of the amniotic fluid or the placenta. They told me I needed to stay at the hospital for 3 days with an IV of antibiotics, and not to get out of bed unless I needed to use the bathroom. They did a culture, but unfortunately they said they might not get it back until Tuesday, December 30th because of the holiday.
I urinated in a cup and the results came back with no infection. My blood test came back with a high white blood cell count of 20,000, which should have been a lot lower. Sunday, December 28th I started getting cramping and back pains. Later that evening they decided to do another ultrasound and found that the baby was okay and the doctor was sure it was a vaginal infection and changed my antibiotics, also my cervix went from 2.5 to 2.8 cm. We were somewhat relieved and thought it was going to be okay. Monday, December 29th, that morning the bleeding seemed to be getting less and I started feeling a lot better. About 5 hours later the bleeding started getting heavy and blood clots started coming out when I urinated and when I was changing my pad a lot of clots dropped onto the pad. I showed it to the nurse and she did not seem concerned. She said it was old blood.
My back started hurting and I felt like someone was stabbing me in my lower abdomen. It also felt like gas pains. I told her to call the Doctor and then I asked my husband to start timing the pain (possible contractions) to see if I was having contractions. Sure enough about after 10 minutes we both thought I was going into labor. Within fifteen minutes I went into premature labor. I heard this loud pop and reached down between my legs and felt the baby's head coming out. I knew then the baby was dead. I kept on telling myself that this was not happening, but it was. The doctors showed up and and helped induce labor. He was beautiful, but he was dead. The next morning they got the final test results back from the culture and I tested positive for GBS, B-Strep. We are waiting on the test results from the placenta in hopes to find out any more information to prevent this from happening again. This is the most horrible thing I have ever gone through. My heart goes out to all of you and pray that you all will find peace.
— Caree Prunty, CA, USA
When we got there on December 17th, I decided to rest and take it easy for a few days. This discharge was still strong and had not changed; by Thursday, December 18th I requested to find a doctor. Unfortunately there was no doctor available until Saturday. We decided to check out on Friday, December 19th and head into Interlaken, Switzerland. Once we got there we found a hospital and went in for an exam. They got me in right away and checked my cervix. They had noticed some broken capillaries on my cervix and said it was probably just the heparin I was taking and not to worry. She did an ultrasound and said everything looked good and not to worry. She took a tissue sample and for some reason decided not to send it to the lab. (I can't tell you how I regret that I did not request that in addition to the ultrasound.) We left there somewhat relieved and were confident that everything was going to be okay. That evening I started feeling like I was coming down with a head cold and a cough, but I was not that concerned about it. That morning I woke up soaking wet and felt like my head was congested. As the week went by we decided to travel up to Luzern, Switzerland. Things did not seem to change. Some of the things I noticed a few weeks back was aching legs, lower back pain, and that night we got to Luzern I was having a hard time sleeping because my back hurt. Again, if you read about being pregnant these are normal symptoms.
We left Luzern the next day to travel up to Salzburg, Austria. The train ride was over 6 hours and we were pretty exhausted. We arrived in Salzburg, December 22nd and planned on staying there until December 26th. We did a lot of resting and sat around and watched TV so I was assuming things were going to get much better. In the middle of the night of December 23rd, I went to the bathroom and noticed some blood clotting or some old blood came out when I urinated. It looked just like the pink tissue but dark/black red. I was concerned and went to get my husband and he assured me it was probably old blood and my cervix was healing. Sinse I was having no pain I decided to dismiss it and go back to sleep. We left on Friday, December 26th and headed to Munich, Germany. My back was hurting a lot as well as my butt. I felt like my cervix was pulling apart to get ready for the baby in the months to come. The bleeding started to pickup feeling like a beginning period. I was a little concerned but decided to rest and hope it would go away.
The next day, December 27th, we decided to go shopping and I was trying on clothes in the dressing room and all of sudden blood started pouring out. I was frantic. I came out of the dressing room and told my husband we needed to find a doctor. Within a few hours we found a clinic. She looked at my cervix and said, "I am not sure why you are bleeding. I would go to the hospital." Within an hour I was checked in to the hospital and they did an ultrasound and checked my cervix to see if I was dilating. They were concerned about my cervix. It should have been at 4 cm and it was 2.5 cm. They told me that the baby looked good and all the fluid was in there but my cervix was slightly open. They told me if I had an infection that it is probably not likely to be inside of the amniotic fluid or the placenta. They told me I needed to stay at the hospital for 3 days with an IV of antibiotics, and not to get out of bed unless I needed to use the bathroom. They did a culture, but unfortunately they said they might not get it back until Tuesday, December 30th because of the holiday.
I urinated in a cup and the results came back with no infection. My blood test came back with a high white blood cell count of 20,000, which should have been a lot lower. Sunday, December 28th I started getting cramping and back pains. Later that evening they decided to do another ultrasound and found that the baby was okay and the doctor was sure it was a vaginal infection and changed my antibiotics, also my cervix went from 2.5 to 2.8 cm. We were somewhat relieved and thought it was going to be okay. Monday, December 29th, that morning the bleeding seemed to be getting less and I started feeling a lot better. About 5 hours later the bleeding started getting heavy and blood clots started coming out when I urinated and when I was changing my pad a lot of clots dropped onto the pad. I showed it to the nurse and she did not seem concerned. She said it was old blood.
My back started hurting and I felt like someone was stabbing me in my lower abdomen. It also felt like gas pains. I told her to call the Doctor and then I asked my husband to start timing the pain (possible contractions) to see if I was having contractions. Sure enough about after 10 minutes we both thought I was going into labor. Within fifteen minutes I went into premature labor. I heard this loud pop and reached down between my legs and felt the baby's head coming out. I knew then the baby was dead. I kept on telling myself that this was not happening, but it was. The doctors showed up and and helped induce labor. He was beautiful, but he was dead. The next morning they got the final test results back from the culture and I tested positive for GBS, B-Strep. We are waiting on the test results from the placenta in hopes to find out any more information to prevent this from happening again. This is the most horrible thing I have ever gone through. My heart goes out to all of you and pray that you all will find peace.
— Caree Prunty, CA, USA
To learn more about Perinatal & GBS Misconceptions, click HERE.
To learn more about the Signs & Symptoms of Preterm Labor, click HERE.
To learn more about the Signs & Symptoms of GBS Infection, click HERE.
To learn more about Why Membranes Should NOT Be Stripped, click HERE.
To learn more about How to Help Protect Your Baby from Group B Strep (GBS), click HERE.
To learn more about the Signs & Symptoms of Preterm Labor, click HERE.
To learn more about the Signs & Symptoms of GBS Infection, click HERE.
To learn more about Why Membranes Should NOT Be Stripped, click HERE.
To learn more about How to Help Protect Your Baby from Group B Strep (GBS), click HERE.