“When we walked into our bay at the NICU, we saw someone else’s name on the feeding bottle. We asked the nurse and she lied right away. After realizing that we caught her, she admitted the error and called the doctor. It took 3 days and us to force the doctor to start the routine check and emergency procedures.“
“As you can imagine the problem is not paying the bill, beside the fact I feel is not fair, but was the whole humiliation during my whole pregnancy, was the way all the professionals made me feel ashamed and guilty for being there. It was losing a child and not being able to grieve properly. Is the trauma of going back to hospital for my child’s care and feeling anxious and depressed to be there. It’s not trusting the health care of this city and not being able to conceive to stay here because I can’t have another traumatic pregnancy.”
“To give an idea of how much blood I lost... I was severely anemic for almost 1 and 1/2 years after having my son. My hemoglobin was so low they weren't going to release me.
But this is when the most heartbreaking thing happened. I wasnt even clear to be released and we were told my son was lowest priority in the neonatal unit and was being transported to St. Catherine's, an hour or so away from our home.
My husband and I were devastated I contacted the hospital management and filed a complaint. But this did nothing. They took him without our expressed consent.”
“I had to go to the ER after a month & a half for pelvic pain. I found out I still had tissue inside, so I had to get a D&C and then get restitched up. Now things down there don’t even look right - good thing I don’t wanna be a stripper! On top of that, I’m now waiting to get my child into physio at CHEO as he has torticollis, which (I’ll be finding out but I’m assuming) is from the trauma of his birth.”
“I was trying to get my daughter on bottle - they had her on a feeding tube. After 36 hours of having her on a bottle, I needed sleep. I'm surprised I stayed up that long. Her one feed during my short 4 hour sleep, the nurse fed her through her tube because she couldn't be bothered to try and feed her through the bottle.. so to say the least, I was back at stage one.”
“No doctors came to check on me while I was recovering after surgery, I was in lots of pain that did not feel normal. I told nurses but they ignored me. I asked for pain meds and 8 hours later they brought me Tylenol! They also discharged me at 8pm with out being checked over or seen! I went and stayed as long as I could with her in the NICU after being discharged and I even started to pump and bring her milk.”
"It was 2 months before my son's due date and I had no idea that my water had broken. When I got admitted to the hospital because I was feeling unwell, the nurse that admitted us was extremely rude and gave me attitude about me not knowing symptoms of early labour (this is my first child)."