A young woman from the Laurentians came close to death when she had to suffer the complications of an untreated ectopic pregnancy. She survived her ordeal and decided to testify to “the most traumatic experience” of her life.
In April 2022, Alanie Pagé Maya went to the emergency room of the Saint-Jérôme Regional Hospital with severe pain in her lower abdomen. She didn’t know it, but one of her fallopian tubes had just ruptured due to an embryo growing outside her uterus.
“I had friends over on Friday night and started having hot flashes. I went upstairs to change and a few minutes later I was lying on my bathroom floor with excruciating stomach pains. My boyfriend found me on the floor and we decided to go to the emergency room,” she recalls.
Once in the triage room, her abdominal cramps became more and more severe and frequent. Her spouse went to plead her case more than once with the nurses on duty, without success.
“I was in so much pain that I was losing consciousness repeatedly. At one point, I had to vomit because I was in so much pain, says the 25-year-old young woman. The nurse who saw me go to the bathroom said to my boyfriend “look no further, she is sick, she has gastro”. And we were sent home to prevent me from infecting everyone.
Paralyzed by pain
Alanie Pagé Maya’s symptoms only got worse as the days passed. Unable to get up or even eat, she spent almost a week lying on a mattress on her bathroom floor.
“I trusted the professionals. I told myself that it was the biggest gastro I had ever had, but there, it didn’t have any more allure. There was blood in my urine, so my partner made me a doctor’s appointment to see if I had a UTI. We were devastated when we found out what it really was.”
emergency operation
Unlike the hospital staff, the doctor who treated her immediately gave her a pregnancy test, which came back positive. He also diagnosed him with a major hemorrhage. A few hours later, the young woman from Prévost had her damaged fallopian tube removed urgently, when she was about to die at the end of her blood.
“If I had been believed by the hospital when I went there the first time, I would not have minimized my pain by telling myself that it was simple gastro and that I had to get through it, she says. to be worth. I was close to dying and I would not have had to undergo all that if I had received the necessary care at the start.
Invited to react, the Saint-Jérôme Regional Hospital and the CISSS des Laurentides maintain that in light of the allegations, “verifications will be made in connection with the events”.
Left to themselves
After having taken more than a year to recover psychologically from these adventures, Alanie Pagé Maya deplores a flagrant lack of follow-up on the psychological level.
“It was a big trauma that I experienced. I don’t wish that on anyone. I feel ready to talk about it now, but it took me a long time to get over it.”
According to Céline Bouchard, gynecologist at the Santé Femme Medical Center and women’s health researcher, ectopic pregnancies are to be taken very seriously, both physically and psychologically.
“Unlike the uterus, the fallopian tube does not stretch. It’s as if the fertilized egg develops into the equivalent of a little finger, it presents great risks. […] Mentally, it’s difficult too, it’s like a miscarriage when you lose a child who was wanted.
Anguish and guilt
Salomee (fictitious name) has also undergone treatment for an ectopic pregnancy in recent months. After having her embryo and one of her fallopian tubes removed, she was left on her own for several weeks, truly consumed by her anguish.
“No one offered me psychological support. I was treated like I had a physical problem, like it was a broken arm. I’ve never heard the words ‘mourning’ or ‘loss’ after everything I’ve been through. Even if he had no chance of surviving, it was a child that I lost,” underlines the young woman who wishes to remain anonymous.
Lack of resources
Céline Bouchard maintains that there are no psychosocial resources for women who have to deal with an ectopic pregnancy.
“We offer help for women who have a miscarriage or who have an abortion, but there is nothing, to my knowledge, for those who have an ectopic pregnancy. Gynecologists and obstetricians are not equipped to handle this and hospitals are severely lacking in psychological support resources. This is a deficient aspect of the health care environment and psychologists should be better integrated into the service offer.”