laparoscopic view of ectopic pregnancy with "internal bleeding"
It is always sad to hear of anyone who has suffered from an ectopic pregnancy, but one should use every opportunity to promote awareness of the symptoms and effects of ectopic pregnancy, both for women and the healthcare professionals who look after them.
I recently read the story of Suzi Perry who not only suffered from an ectopic pregnancy but tells her story about attending an accident and emergency department and waiting for 2 hours. She collapsed in a toilet and was then rushed to theatre for life-saving surgery back in 2009 (published in the daily Mirror in october 2012).
Ectopic pregnancy occurs in 1:100 pregnancies, with the majority occurring in the fallopian tube. The majority of women present before rupture with the so called sub-acute symptoms of pain in the stomach with or without vaginal bleeding. About 8-10% of women will present after the fallopian tube has ruptured.
The human body has a circulating volume of about 5 litres of blood and most young women can cope with loss of about a litre after which the body's compensating mechanisms no longer work. This is a life threatening condition and requires emergency surgery and blood transfusion.
There are 2 issues with her story:
Early diagnosis; It appears that the referring doctor recognised her symptoms and referred her to A&E, however for undisclosed reasons she waited and collapsed. Even though she had presented to her carers there was still a delay in recognising potential symptoms and acting on them.
This only happens in the minority of women, probably less than 1% however we should remember that ectopic pregnancy is still one of the major killers of women in early pregnancy and a minority of women still die despite being under the care of medical professionals
The second part of Suzi's story is also not uncommon for women who have suffered from an ectopic pregnancy.
About 70% of women get pregnant after an ectopic pregnancy but women who have an ectopic pregnancy as their first pregnancy are at higher risk of repeat ectopic pregnancy and therefore more likely to remain without children.
Her story is sad, but hopefully will help raise awareness of this potentially catastrophic situation both for women of childbearing age and for the medical professionals who look after women with ectopic pregnancy.
RSS Feed