Фото: t.me/gkb_5
Maternity Hospital No. 5 of the Minsk City Clinical Hospital has commented on a story that spread on social media several days ago. Earlier, a Threads user under the name by.stremilova wrote about a patient with a 22-week missed miscarriage who went into labor and miscarried directly in the hospital ward. She claimed that medical assistance was not provided immediately and that her roommate was forced to look for hospital staff herself.
According to her, the story was told to her by a friend who was staying at Maternity Hospital No. 5 at the time.
“This girl’s water broke and she started having contractions. And the baby started coming out. Her friend ran to call anyone she could find. She found someone and said, ‘Labor has started in the ward.’ And the response was: ‘Well, then let her lie down in the bed, spread her legs and give birth.’ Her friend came to the ward and held the girl’s hand during the pushing, saw the dead baby and the placenta, and the doctor eventually came when everything was already coming out. All of this happened in the ward in front of someone who had never given birth! Psychologically, it was stressful both for the patient and her friend.
After the birth, the baby was taken away, and the patient was told to wait for a uterine cleaning procedure. There was amniotic fluid all over the ward, and the bed was completely covered after the birth. At dinner, the friend called staff and said: ‘Are you going to clean this up? It’s dinner time, I’m going to eat in the ward. How am I supposed to eat in these conditions?’ They replied: ‘We have no cleaners, and we are not obliged to clean here. Call whoever you want; we are not going to clean it’, the author of the post wrote.
“I would not have believed any of this if I had not seen the video and heard the voice messages with the staff. And the video in which the patient is present.
I will not post anything online. But her friend called the hotline and told them everything”, she added.
The story caused widespread reaction. Several days ago, the Minsk City Executive Committee’s Health Committee said that the situation was under the supervision of the management and that an internal review was being conducted at the hospital. The review includes the circumstances surrounding the termination of the pregnancy and the ethical aspects of staff members’ communication with patients. Following the collection of proposals, the committee plans to organize a meeting with patients and relevant experts to jointly develop new standards for medical ethics and psychological support in maternity hospitals.
Today, the maternity hospital itself presented its version of events. The institution said that emotional posts circulating on social media «often distort reality», and described what happened from a medical perspective.
“Planned treatment: Two patients from the gynecology department were staying in a two-bed ward. They were admitted for planned treatment, not for pregnancy preservation.
Emergency situation: One of the women experienced a sudden deterioration in her health. The situation developed rapidly, so the doctor and nurse ran to the ward and provided assistance on the spot.
Psychological support: Both before and after what happened, doctors offered the patient assistance from a qualified psychotherapist.
Outcome: The doctors and nurses promptly dealt with their main task — saving the patient’s health. The woman has already written a sincere thank-you to the hospital doctor”, the medical institution said.
“Medical crises — whether the loss of a child, a stroke or bleeding — can happen to anyone at any moment. At such a time, both the person and the doctors need peace and support. Publishing details of someone else’s misfortune on social media without the patient’s consent violates her right to privacy. The best thing an eyewitness can do in an emergency is call medical staff for help, rather than look for a sensation”, the hospital added.