17/02/2024
Thank you Portia for Sharing.
My first child, I went to the Coombe and decided to go private with Mr X, so I'd get the best possible care.
I'd book in for the first appt at 8am so I wouldn't be late for work and I'd always be 5-10 minutes early. But there were always people ahead of me who would see him first because they got in first, despite their appointments being scheduled for later. What a nonsense!!
Anyway, 7 weeks before my due date I began getting horrific pain around my diaphragm. I went in to A&E and they checked my urine for protein, decided I didn't have pre-eclampsia, and sent me home. The pain intensified but I had been told I was fine so I waited a day before ringing my consultant (who I'd paid €4.5k for his personal attention). I rang every half hour from 6:30 am to 6pm and got no reply. When my husband got back from work, we went, again, to the hospital. I was in admissions, crying, so Stephen went to get me tissues and saw my consultant leaving the hospital with a pile of papers, on top of which was a post-it saying "call Portia ".
He grabbed him and frog matched him in to Admissions to see me. My consultant looked bored at my story of pain, I got the feeling my "first time mum" vibes were of no interest to him, until Stephen mentioned I'd had a blood nose. Suddenly this got serious and I was admitted, the baby was given steroids and two days later he was delivered in an emergency cesarean.
I had HELLP syndrome and was, basically, dying.
Had it not been for an obstinate husband, I might not be writing this.
When I was pregnant with the twins, I chose to go semi-private, in the Rotunda, because then whoever was on duty would look after me (and boy, did we need looking after), and not some private man too greedy to have patients pay him a fortune to be arsed seeing those patients in need.
So this is a message in support of our public health system which were sterling in their help for my very premature twins and a seriously complicated birth.
