I read this story recently. Never thought it was possible, and I don’t know how many other mothers have caught on fire during major surgery to birth a child, but it is yet another reason to stay at home when giving birth… Woman says she was burned while giving birth
“One year old Christopher Estrada Jr. is a healthy baby boy, a fact mother Abigail Estrada can take solace in, regardless of a terrible accident in the operating room. She was in labor at San Joaquin Community Hospital for four days in July of 2005, when the doctor decided to perform a c-section.
In the operating room, Estrada remembers seeing the doctors and nurses started to panic, while all she could see was smoke and flames. She didn’t realize it was her legs that were on fire, until after she gave birth.
After staying at San Joaquin for a month, Estrada went down to the Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks. Husband Christopher was forced to quit his job to take care of the family. And now, even a year later, Estrada has daily rehab and more surgeries on the way. What was a nightmare, became even worse when trying to deal with the legalities of what happened.
Attorney Daniel Rodriguez describes a situation with both insurance companies for the doctor and the hospital refusing to take responsibility, placing blame with the other party. He says the hospital alleges the doctor started cutting too early, while the doctor claims the nurses used too much antiseptic solvent.
Rodriguez filed the lawsuit against the hospital and everyone in the operating room three months ago, that includes two doctors and four nurses. Attorney Dennis Thelan, who is representing the two—Dr. Philip Melendez and Dr. Tong Chung, says in no way did the two surgeons start the fire. As for the hospital, lawyers will not issue a comment because the lawsuit is pending.”
Story Created: Nov 14, 2006 at 8:53 PM CST
I’m wondering why this story did not hit the airwaves until a year after it happened??? Jenny Hatch
“The assassination of Lebanese Christian politician Pierre Gemayel this Tuesday has revealed that the Tehran-Damascus axis remains busy with terror activities across the Fertile Crescent.”
U.N.: October bloodiest month yet for Iraqi civilians
“BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — The United Nations said Wednesday that 3,709 Iraqi civilians were killed in October, the highest monthly toll since the March 2003 U.S. invasion and another sign of the severity of Iraq’s sectarian bloodbath.”
This was an interesting number by the UN, because even if you use this number to calculate an average of dead Iraqis for the duration of the war…..and the UN itself says it is the “highest” number of civilians killed, forty three months since the war started multiplied by 3,709 murdered is way below the numbers mentioned in a highly touted report by John Hopkins university claiming 655,000 dead.
Multiply that high number 3,709 by 43 and you come up with 159,487 people who have been killed during the war. Since the various people involved in these numbers are suspect to me as having an anti US agenda, I’ll leave it to God to tally those who have died while Freedom is being established in that blighted nation.
I wonder if anyone counted up the civilian war dead from the American Revolution?
Sure, it is easy to say that Freedom’s Fight is never worth the loss, but that will have to be decided by the people of Iraq, wether the fight was worth it or not. I’m glad for my ancestors who fought and died during the American Revolution, because now ten generations later, I am still enjoying the fruits of that fight. My guess is that the descendents of the people of Iraq today will hail this generation of freedom fighters as a courageous memory of what it takes to free a nation from tyranny.
They will build monuments and political buildings and great highways and roads in memory of those who are fighting and have lost their lives.
And if you need a sobering reminder of the threat….Hugh Hewitt….
“What we see at the extreme end of the spectrum are resilient networks, some directed from Al-Qaida in Pakistan, some more loosely inspired by it, planning attacks including mass casualty suicide attacks in the UK. Today we see the use of home-made improvised explosive devices; tomorrow’s threat may include the use of chemicals, bacteriological agents, radioactive materials and even nuclear technology. More and more people are moving from passive sympathy towards active terrorism through being radicalised or indoctrinated by friends, families, in organised training events here and overseas, by images on television, through chat rooms and websites on the Internet.”
And for those of you conservatives who are still feeling the sting after the recent election….here is Peggy Noonans take on the most recent spasm of freedoms fight in America….
“In a way they never tell the truth until the concession speech. That’s when nothing they say can hurt them anymore. They’re worn to the bone and they’ve been in a struggle and it’s over, and suddenly some basic, rock-solid, dumb knowledge of what they’ve been involved in–a great nation’s life–comes loose and declares itself.
Rep. Harold Ford of Tennessee, who lost his Senate race, said he’d wanted to be in government since he was 4 years old, that people had taken a risk on him, that he was grateful. “I love my country,” he said. “Don’t lose faith in this great thing called America.””
I have not lost the faith, and as a confirmed Neo-Con, I would just like to see these blessings of liberty spread confidently and courageously all over the world. Jenny Hatch
As our society continues to stand idly by while Gun to your Head obstetrics has its way with American Women, we see many pundits, politicians, and clergy members wringing their hands wondering what is going on with our young people.
We are sowing the wind as a society and we are going to reap a very strong whirlwind. Here is an article talking about current birth statistics, based on the preliminary report released this past week by the Center for Disease Control for 2005.
Quotes:
“The government also reported that the rate of births by Caesarean delivery continued to climb in 2005 to a record high, despite efforts by public health authorities to bring down the number.
Many experts believe a large number of C-sections are medically unnecessary and done only for the convenience of the mother or her doctor.”
I’m just wondering what “efforts by public health authorities” the writer of the article is talking about? Have we experienced any sort of censure of doctors, hospitals, or their administrators when the C-section rate goes over a certain percent? Some hospitals in America are reaching obscene levels of intervention in birth.
Another quote:
“The C-section rate rose to 30.2 percent of all births in 2005, an increase of 1 percentage point from the previous year. The rate has risen by nearly half since 1996.
“It is clear that the procedure is being overused,” Tonya Jamois, president of the International Cesarean Awareness Network, said in a statement. ICAN is a California-based nonprofit organization focused on lowering C-section rates.”
Full ICAN response to current stats, and the ICAN guide on what to do if your hospital or doctor refuses to let you have a vaginal birth after C-section.
I have some ideas on how to “reform” birth.
If women want C-sections, let them pay for them.
I am all for choice in childbirthing options. But if the vast majority of women are “choosing” to have a C-section to give birth, let this type of birth be classed in the optional surgery catagory of health care. And like a cosmetic surgery, let the parents pay for this surgery if that is what they truly want.
Then we will sift through the rhetoric and be able to see who truly wants to have major abdominal surgery when birthing a child.
Another idea would be to fine any doctor who induced labor before 41 weeks.
And, for any doc who cuts and pulls a baby because the baby is “getting too big” or the mother is “just tired of being pregnant”, or “my doctor is going out of town, and I want him to deliver the baby” before 41 weeks, he or she should be put on medical probation.
I believe the vast majority of those surgeries were and are coerced, with threats of legal action, bullying by the docs and nurses, and fearmongering by the hospital staff.
So how do we get the C-section rate down to a healthy 10 to 15%?
Educating the Medical Profession with their own statistics might prove helpful.
More women than ever before are getting prental care in America. Yet the infant mortality rate, prematurity rate, and all health indicators and statisitcs prove that mothers and babies are not being “saved” by all of the drugs and surgery.
This is not to say that all surgeries are evil. My next door neighbor, a highly educated and informed mother who had a natural Bradley Birth with her first son, just gave birth this week by C-section because her placenta completely covered her cervix in a condition called Placenta Previa. Her section was completely justified and probably saved her life and the life of her child.
But how do we seperate the elective surgeries from those truly needed for real emergencies?
Ultimately it comes down to education. Teaching mothers how to keep themselves low risk. Teaching the facts about surgical birth to those who think it will be better than a natural birth. holding hospitals accountable if rates go above a certain level.
It is parents and taxpayers who should hold hospitals and doctors accountable. We pay the bills and we are the ones who have to live with the long term outcome of a physically damamged child or mother.
If we don’t change the trends with some proactive and thoughtful steps, I’m predicting the rate will double by 2020. A sixty percent C-section rate??? Can it happen in America? Sure it can, and that is the direction we are headed without some major reforms. And if anyone at all thinks socialized medicine will be the answer for the birthing mess, they have been sorely deceived by illogical thinking. The doctors and hospitals will have absolutely zero incentive to do anything normal and natural with birth if we become completely socialized in America.
And what will that mean for our society? Anyone not willing to submit to the medical model must flee.
Flee to what?
What is Natural.
What is good.
What is whole.
What is ALIVE!
What is everlasting JOY!
The parents who have experienced holistic birth often are surprised by the joy that seizes them when that baby is born.
Paul holding Benjamin right after the birth!
There is nothing more sacred, holy, or special than welcoming a child quietly in the sanctity of ones own bedroom, surrounded by angels and family harmony and love. Jenny Hatch
Paul delivered Ben in our bedroom on October 25, 2002.
He lept for joy when our son was born.
We have had a really nice week of relaxation and rest.
Yesterday Paul and Jeff woke up early to begin preparations for our thanksgiving supper. Paul made corn bread, yes grinding the whole corn himself in the electric grain mill. I heard the grinder go on really early. He baked the corn bread and then used it in his stuffing. Trouble was, nobody liked the stuffing except me. Not even Paul liked it. He was rather sad as he chucked it in the garbage last night. All those hours of work trying to come up with a perfect stuffing. Everyone agreed that Stove Top would have been better. Poor guy. Welcome to the wonderful world of cooking healthy food for a family. When they don’t like it, not only does it not get eaten, but Mom and Dad hear long and loud how nasty it was.
Oh well, everything else was really yummy.
Paul and I are traveling to the Denver Temple today to do an endowment session. He has the next three days off work and we plan to enjoy this stake temple day and then have a relaxing weekend. He has been very busy with work, pulling multiple all nighters, and is exhausted.
I told him I would be happy to do the thanksgiving cooking this year, but he and Jeff had a great time last year doing it, and they wanted to do it again this year. No skin off my nose. I had a great day, caught up, mostly, on the laundry, deep cleaned the living room without my constant helper by my side (Ben was outside playing with his sisters and the puppy). It was nice to be able to scrub the hardwood without him grabbing the mop away from me every five minutes. When he came in from playing he saw the mop and bucket and asked if he could clean. I said sure, and he took over.
Why is it that the four year old is always the one who is excited to help with the housework???
Anyway, it was nice to be able to clean and not have the stress of cooking too. We had a relaxing day and enjoyed watching some football and movies later in the night. Michelle has gotten me hooked on the sitcom Reba. I never watched it before, and she had taped a couple episodes and we watched them together last night. It was so funny, we were just laughing our heads off.
I’m re-reading the Anne of Green Gables series for about the 20th time. I like read the series every year of so. My grandma introduced me to Anne when I was about twelve, and I read that book over and over not knowing that a whole series was hiding from my view. Over the years I have collected all eight books, as well as many other Lucy Maud novels, and they are among some of my prized books in our home library.
All of those characters are like old friends to me. With my favorites being Susan Baker, Anne’s son Walter, and little six year old Davy keith, who provides the humor in the hilarious parts of Ann of Avonlea.
I love those books because I can trust them. I dont’ have to worry about my mind being assaulted with ugly images or foul language.
I feel the same way about most of my favorite authors. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Jane Austen, Chaim Potok, Orson Scott Card (I know, Orson can write funky and strange, but I still love his books, especially the Alvin and Ender Series), Tolkien, Rand, C. S. Lewis etc..
Lucy Maud Montgomery understood people. She knew and eloquently described the way men and women think and feel. The depths of her understanding of human nature continues to astound me as I mature and read and re-read those novels.
I wept just as hard as ever I did as a teen when I read of Matthews death yesterday. As I finished up that novel it felt like I had just enjoyed a wonderful meal, it was so nourishing to my soul to spend some time on Prince Edward island with those wonderful characters.
The main goal of our home schooling efforts was to teach our children to love to read and to love books! I often find my kids tucked away in some quiet corner of the house immersed in a book, and it is so fun to share good reading with them.
Andrew recently introduced me to the Eragon series of books and we have been enjoying the story together. I was amazed when he received some money for his birthday and wanted to spend it on the hard cover version of Eragon and its sequel. We are planning to be at the theatre on the opening day of the Eragon movie in a couple weeks. Several times the children have mentioned that the books are always better than the movies, and this has thrilled me to know that they understand the limitations of the screen. While it is fun to watch, to truly get into the minds of the characters in books you have to read.
I need to run, we are getting ready to attend the temple this morning. Jenny Hatch
