By Glen Williams
Pictures: Andrew Jacob
**A number of recent tragedies have highlighted the controversial debate about how safe pregnant women are in our hospitals. In the past few weeks three women have reported suffering the pain and trauma of losing a baby in hospital bathrooms.
Here one woman tells Woman’s Day of her horrifying ordeal and how she survived it.**
The moment is melt-your-heart tender. Doting new parents Jana Horska and Mark Dreyer can’t stop looking at their 15-week-old baby, Sarah Louise.
This cute little bundle knows she is adored. She stares back, wide-eyed, happy to coo at Mum and Dad. It’s a special moment, but one tinged with raw and angry memories.
Just 16 months ago, Jana, then 14 weeks pregnant, lay alone, doubled over in agony in a toilet in the emergency department at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital.
Jana was no stranger to miscarriage — she’d lost their first baby in April 2007 — so when she started cramping she took no chances. She phoned her trusted family doctor, who advised her to go to her local hospital, where he said she’d be most likely put on a drip and given bed rest.
The couple went to Royal North Shore, not knowing they’d chosen that hospital on a night when staff were overworked and beds scarce.
“You go to a hospital expecting basic care, at least compassion,” says Mark. “When we arrived at RNS, we explained Jana had the same symptoms as her first miscarriage and we wanted to have her checked out. The response was, ‘Oh, well, if you’re going to miscarry, you’re going to miscarry’…”
For the full story, see this week’s Woman’s Day (on sale January 26).
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
