ULTRASOUND Messages for March, 2002: Urgent Case: 3rd Trimester Fetal Hydrops

Urgent Case: 3rd Trimester Fetal Hydrops

From: susan gezalian

sgezalian@msn.com

Thu Mar 7 22:34:23 2002

My name is Susan and I need your advice and help. I was searching the internet for nonimmune hydrops fetalis and all of a sudden, I saw your site and decided to ask you couple of questions. So, if you can please help. My husband and I are devastated for our Baby's loss and we need help. Here is my story.

Three months ago I gave birth to my first child who was born with severe hydrops fetalis. My entire pregnancy went very well, without any complications. The AFP test came back normal, and all of my ultrasounds showed a normal fetus. On my 29th week I was walking on the street and all of a sudden I fainted. When I opened my eyes and tried to look around everything was black. Few minutes later I was feeling O.K. and my friend took me to the hospital and the nurses told me that the baby's heart rate was normal and they did not think that there was anything serious. But, few minutes later they came back with my blood test results which showed that I had serious anemia. (Throughout my pregnancy I was taking my prenatal vitamins and my doctor told me that I was not anemic. ) Couple of minutes later a nurse realized that my baby's heart rate was going down for a few seconds and it was coming back to normal again. This process continued and the nurse called my doctor. Later, at the same day of my arrival to the hospital my doctor's exchange came and did an ultrasound. We were waiting for a good news, but it did not happen. After looking at the ultrasound very carefully he said that our baby had a very serious problem. He called a high risk specialist who said that my baby had severe fetal hydropd. Then, I started having contractions and they gave me medication to stop my labor. They also gave me steroids to make the baby's lungs mature. The high risk specialist told us that if my plate lates continue dropping, then they would need to do an emergency cesarean section. After staying at the hospital for two days my baby and I were not getting better, and at 2:30 a.m. they decided to do a c-section. My son was born. He was all swollen. Did not look good at all. They took him to NICU and tried everything to help him get better, but he only survived for two days. He died exactly 48 hours later by leaving us with too many questions. They did probably hundred s of tests on me and on my son but everything came back normal. Until today they are saying that they do not know the reason of his nonimmune hudrops. All they know is that the baby's anatomy was normal and he was genetically perfectly fine. Also, My baby's doctor at NICU told us that this kind of severe hydrops could not happen in couple of days. Then how come my doctor never saw it? I cannot convince myself that it was not my doctor's fault. I think he was a little responsible for this to happen. In my 27th week I had complained him about decrease in my baby's movement, excessive weight gain, fever, abdominal pain, but he did not do an ultrasound. Here are my questions to you and please, please answer them if you can.

Do you think that my OBGYN was responsible for this? What can cause nonimmune fetal hydrops? Since I had a cesarean section, how long should we wait before we become pregnant again? If I become pregnant again what can I do to decrease my chances of having the same problem?

Thank you very much! Susan Gezalian

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