To Sue or Not to Sue?

If you haven't read my birth story, It's my very first post, read about it here.

While I was in hospital. I complained to the healthcare team about how I was being treated. Especially when I was out of the high dependency ward. I was kept in hospital majorly because I kept having temperature spikes, the reason for the high temperature could not be determined. I had all sorts of tests. The consultant that had performed the operation went on holiday and the communication was rather poor between the health workers and to me and my family. My antibiotics were changed from IV to oral and then my temperature went up and I was back on IV, then it was changed to a broader spectrum antibiotic.

It got really frustrating. I remember calling my doctor friends and asking for advice. At some point I felt like the hospital did not want to 'let me go' just incase something went wrong following the complicated delivery. Some of the midwives and support workers started to refer to me as 'Tabs' and that's when I knew I had been in there for too long. lol. Some joked that they could even say my hospital number. My admission band faded and another had to be printed.

On one of the days I was so upset, I asked to speak to the most senior Dr on call. I relayed my frustrations to him, I cried as I spoke. I just wanted to got home. I was tired. He listened keenly, made some notes  and that all I had said would be taken on board. He also told me that it was within my right to make a formal complain.

When I got out of hospital and shared my birth story with people, Some would ask 'did you sue them?' 'Did you get paid any compensation?' Others advised that I sue the hospital 'Do it so that they would learn from their mistake and we would not suffer the same thing when it is our time' others insinuated that I could do with the money that I would get as compensation seeing as I was on maternity leave.

I thought long and hard about what to do. I discussed with family. I prayed. It would be good to get some compensation from the NHS, money is always a good thing isn't it? Or better still let me sue the hospital for the sake of my sisters coming after me. Maybe I should just speak to a lawyer and hear what my options are. its usually no win, no fee any way. I could even add that due to all the complications, my daughter is not latching on and now I am emotionally stressed from pumping my breast. 

To cut the long story short, I had no peace about taking any legal action and so I didn't. I am not applauding the consultant for cutting my muscle or the medical team for their lack of proper communication. That was not good to put it mildly. But I wasn't prepared to go down that route.

I am just so thankful that I am alive and I have a beautiful daughter and we are both healthy. Also, as a healthcare professional who has had a few near misses, I know that you don't only learn from mistakes and put measures to prevent them happening again when a patient takes legal action. We have procedures for learning from near misses and incidents. Apart from the lack of communication that cost me extra days in hospital and the fact that my muscle was cut, I had a lovely team of doctors, nurses, midwives, support workers and medical students. I am thankful to them for doing their job. I believe none of them set out to harm me or my family deliberately and even if for some crazy reason they did, God was watching over me so All is Well!