“I almost died because a hospital refused to treat me after miscarriage”

Mum Kate Kempen has shared a heartbreaking story about the loss of her baby – and the refusal of the hospital to treat her after her miscarriage.

“I knew we should have waited until the second trimester to announce it but we were just too excited,” she wrote on Facebook.

“’Baby number 2, coming April 2014’, the Facebook post read with a picture of our first son’s beaming face peeking above a “big brother” sign.”

Tragically, that same night, Kate started spotting and, after a doctor’s visit and a few days where her bleeding increased, she ended up in the ER.

An ultrasound confirmed her worst fears; there was no heartbeat and the baby had not formed properly.

A devastated Kate asked to have a procedure to remove the baby so she could begin trying again, however was told the privately-owned Catholic hospital didn’t believe in ‘abortions’ unless the mother’s life was in danger.

She was then sent home with reassurances that her ‘body would take care of it’ and left the hospital shaken and heartbroken.

For eleven days, Kate continued to bleed and eventually had to return to hospital where she was told she’d had an ‘incomplete miscarriage’ and was at risk of shock and sepsis.

“My body had, in fact, NOT ‘taken care of it’ and it was now an emergency situation. The operating room was prepped and I was taken back for surgery, my husband and mother in tow,” she wrote.

“After the procedure, I could finally begin to move forward. We ended up losing another pregnancy (thankfully my body “took care” of that one without any further trauma) before we had our beautiful rainbow baby and completed our family in 2015.

“I still haven’t forgiven the hospital and staff for what they put me (and no doubt other women) through. It’s plain wrong and I will always hold resentment towards them. It’s a sharp pain that fades with time but never completely disappears.”