He Had to Be Escorted Out
I’m an OBGYN. When I was a resident, we induced a woman who stated she was 41 weeks along, one week past her due date. Her labor went surprisingly quickly, and when I delivered her baby, I knew immediately that something was wrong.
The baby was extremely tiny and was clearly not a full-term infant. We called the NICU team right away and after the delivery, went digging deeper into her chart.
This woman had had her prenatal care elsewhere and had claimed that her due date was always the one we had listed. It’s standard practice to confirm dating with an early ultrasound if possible, and she had had an ultrasound, but her prenatal provider must not have looked at it closely.
When we finally found the original ultrasound report, it listed her as having a due date 10 weeks later than we thought…so we had just induced her at 31 weeks, six weeks premature. We went in to confront her, and her partner was just sitting there, processing this information.
He looked like he had just seen a ghost, his face was so white. It turns out, he was “away,” which is Philly-speak for “in lock-up” when the baby must have been conceived. He threw a bottle of soda across the room and had to be escorted out while we explained how the woman had put the baby in danger by getting us to deliver it early.
I think the baby did well, but it definitely had to spend several weeks in the NICU. We always confirmed dating ultrasounds or did a growth scan if there wasn’t one in the chart for future patients. Story credit: Reddit / Spelled_latte