r/pregnant 4 days ago Join.. Status_Garden_3288 # Top 1% Pos... I was held involuntarily at a mental hospital for saying I didn't want to be pregnant anymore (Texas) Need Advice A couple notes upfront: I am a first time mom, and this was a planned and wanted pregnancy. I am still trying to process the last 72 hours which has caused me significant trauma and distress. I am writing this out publicly to warn other mothers. This happened in Texas. I am currently 9+1. I have been in the ER a couple times for severe 24/7 nausea which is triggering significant panic attacks. The nausea is the worst at night and which has been keeping me from sleeping which makes and anxiety worse, plus I'm unable to keep down food and liquids. It's been seriously horrible. My first two ER doctors (women) were at separate ER locations and both gave me hydration, one gave me Zofran + sugar but then I had issues with the Zofran backing me up. I had another bad night of puking and panic attacks and I called my mom in the morning crying because I was so miserable. She said she would go to a different ER with me, one that was a full hospital that had OBs on staff.
When I get there I explain the situation to a male ER doctor who spoke with me for less than 5 minutes. I told him my issues with waking up with nausea, then the panic attacks, then sleeping. I told him that the panic attacks and combined with everything scare me and made me not want to be pregnant anymore but I made I clear to him I just wanted relief and had no plan on hurting myself or anyone else. He refused to give me any medication, not even an IV bag to help with fluids. He sent a social worker to talk to me about the panic attacks and said she could find a facility that would take me who could help with medication + sleep etc. I said Ok because I was so desperate at that point and had been in the ER for hours with no help whatsoever. He never even called OB (I haven't seen mine yet at all). I haven't even had an ultrasound. I get sent to the new clinic and by the time I get through processing it's 3 am and I'm crying because I'm having high anxiety and I haven't slept. They never gave me my night time medications or anything, I finally go to bed around 4am, And then they wake me back up at 6 am to do my vitals and said I needed to go itemize my belongings. Once I woke up the nausea hit me immediately and I asked for Zofran which they refused because I had to see the internal medicine doctor first. I didn't get Zofran until 1030 am at which point I had missed breakfast and was nonstop puking. But the doctor would only allow one 4mg pill every 12 hours. I was so sick. Eventually I'm seen by a psychiatrist who I thought would be able to help me with meds but he said no, I can't take anything because I'm pregnant and
I'd have to talk to a different doctor who wasn't going to be in until Monday(this was on Saturday). At that point I freak out because now I'm away from home, they aren't giving me my over the counter meds like unisom + b6 (for nausea) or my prenatals. And they're not giving me enough Zofran to keep the nausea at bay. I said I wanted to leave then, as I was there voluntarily and the doctor was mad and said I'd have to sign an AMA form and he'd place me on a 24 hour hold, where the other Dr would talk to me before the 24 hours and determine if they'd try to get a court order to keep me. I was so shocked. I asked if there was anyway I could talk to someone as I didn't want to say and they were holding me involuntarily at that point. He said no. I'm a panicky sick mess after this and go through all the paperwork they gave me which included the patient bill of rights which stated patients had the right to be discharged within 4 hours of request unless the Dr believed I was a danger to myself or others or that I was mentally unable to make medical decisions for myself. I requested a written justification from the Dr outlining which of those reasons he was using to justify the 24 hour hold and he refused. He just kept saying I wasn't allowed to leave until I spoke with the other doctor who wasn't going to be in till the next day. At around 330 my mom and and fiance came for visitation and I brought my paperwork with me and showed them the patient rights documents and they were pissed so they stayed 2.5 hours after visitation and argued with them to release me so I could go home, since they weren't even treating me anyway and withholding medications. The Doctor refused to talk to my family even though I specifically included them on my medical release forms.
So they had a right to request that information and were requesting a justification for keeping me there past the 4 hours. It got so bad my mom even called the cops and filed a police report. They refused to let me go so I had to stay another night without Zofran and couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, couldn't keep food or water down. There was no doctor on staff at the time so when the nurses called to get my Zofran prescription increased the doctor didn't answer and they couldn't do anything for me. I could tell the nurses were trying their best and were very frustrated for me. The original doctor came back an hour before the 24 hours were up, and clearly did not want to talk to me. I think the other doctor said he wasn't getting involved because it was turning into a legal situation at that point. He was super short with me and when I requested justification for the 24 hour hold he said the ER doctor and said I didn't want to be pregnant anymore and used that as justification. I'm absolutely floored at this point. He didn't want to speak further about the issue and discharged me. But apparently no one knew how to discharge me because it's the weekend so it took another few hours to even leave. The whole situation was so miserable and I legitimately feel traumatized by the experience. I still feel like I need help with the nausea and panic attacks but I'm scared to go back to the ER now. It's been so horrible and I don't know what to do besides talk to my OB at my upcoming appointment and hope she's more understanding of my problems.
Horrifying: a person experiencing anxiety & severe early pregnancy symptoms expressed to an ER doctor her frustration over feeling terrible by saying it’s so bad it makes her not want to be pregnant anymore — and she got 5150’d.
Anxiety & vomiting still untreated.
www.reddit.com/r/pregnant/c...
