Postpartum Recovery Gone Wrong

It's been a few weeks now since I posted about my neighbor passing away after giving birth. When I originally posted, the autopsy was still in process and there was a lot of uncertainty over what had gone wrong. The natural assumption was a pulmonary embolism or blood clot as the likely culprit (my immediate thought as well).

However, the initial diagnosis by the hospital (and relayed to us by her husband) was that it was caused by an infection that spread rapidly and undetected until it resulted in cardiac arrest.

This was indeed the final determination of the autopsy.

The details of the findings are extremely scary and something I think most of us don't tend to really think is that possible in our modernized society. I think we all acknowledge that there are risks involved in any type of medical procedure but this? This was a silent killer and there wasn't anything that could have been done differently.

My neighbor went into labor and gave birth naturally at a very well known and respected hospital. During the birthing process, bacteria gained access to her uterus. This was not due to lack of sanitary conditions or procedures incorrectly followed at the hospital. The bacteria is apparently an extreme form, relatively new and highly resistant. We were told that the hospital stated that there were no tests that could have been run to detect the bacteria in the beginning stages. Keep in mind, she worked here. Some of these people were co-workers and friends.

After the birth, she recovered nicely and was sent home with the baby within a few days. During this time frame, the bacteria began to multiply rapidly, spreading throughout her whole body, still undetected. The day she died, less than a weeks time from giving birth, she woke up feeling a bit off. While getting up, she passed out on the floor and was immediately rushed to the hospital.

By the time she arrived at the hospital, her kidneys had shut down and other organs were beginning to fail as well. As she was being rushed into emergency surgery to try and save her, she went into cardiac arrest and they were unable to resuscitate her.

It's scary to hear about the various new antibiotic-resistant forms of bacteria that are cropping up. Scarier still to realize that as of now, the medical community has very few weapons in its arsenal to fight back with.

I don't want to post the name of the bacteria here and end up with paranoid people googling and coming across this story on the blog but if you want to know the name, you can feel free to email me for it.

In the meantime, prayers for this young family would be greatly appreciated.