You Know You Have a Bad Doctor When He Doesn’t Show Up to Deliver Your Baby

I went to a new OB/GYN practice. The practice included two doctors, one of whom I liked very much. Unfortunately, she left the practice late in my pregnancy and I was stuck seeing the other physician. I didn’t actually dislike the man. He was never mean or rude or anything like that. He just never made me feel very comfortable.

There were times that I’d be speaking with him and notice he’d start blinking his eye pretty rapidly. After awhile, I realized he did this when he was nervous. A doctor being nervous doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in his patients. At my last appointment, the doctor scheduled me for an induction the next morning. He told me to arrive at the hospital at 5 a.m. and that the induction would begin by 6 a.m. He would see me at the hospital at 9 a.m.

We arrived at the hospital and the induction started on time. By 8 a.m., my contractions were strong and less than a minute apart. My nurse called the doctor to let him know that I was almost ready to deliver, and he told her he would be at the hospital in about an hour. By 9:15 a.m., when my water broke, the doctor still hadn’t arrived.

My nurse telephoned the doctor a second time. He told her he was getting in the shower and would be there as soon as he could. Unfortunately, my daughter was ready to be delivered and wasn’t waiting any longer. This was obviously extremely distressing and I was given an oxygen mask to help me breathe when I almost passed out a few minutes later. At that time, I couldn’t help but push. My nurse started yelling, “I need a doctor in here! I need some help in here!” Two other nurses arrived to help, and seven minutes after my water broke, my daughter was born.

After the delivery, the maternity department’s manager came to see me and asked if I was OK. I overheard her telling the nurses to make sure that they had documented the times they called my doctor. Around 10 a.m., my doctor arrived. “Wow, are you already done?” he said to me, smiling. “Yes. The nurses did a great job,” I told him, not smiling. Coincidentally, this particular doctor left his practice less than two months after this happened.