New Mum Sues After No-Meds C-Section

There's unmedicated birth, and then there's unmedicated birth. It sparks much discussion, passionate arguments on all sides. But I think there's one thing everybody agrees on: anesthesia and c-sections were kind of made for each other.

Just as this mum in the U.K. who had to endure her daughter's surgical birth without a working epidural. She'll tell you the pain is so great, the situation so totally terrifying that it has quelched her dream of having more children.

Here's what happened:

Sarah Carberry, 27, was 38 weeks pregnant when her water broke. Doctors said she could not be induced and that she would have to give birth to her daughter via c-section. She agreed, changed into her gown, got the epidural. They wheeled her in for the surgery.

She said she knew right away that the epidural hadn't worked and told doctors she would feel the knife. They told her that was nonsense and that she was just stressed. They started to cut. She felt the knife.

It was only when they cut my womb open and I was screaming in agony that they finally took me seriously.

'I
was shaking in pain. I was convinced I would die, but no one would
listen to me. They continued until my husband said, "Stop the
operation".'

 The doctors suspect there was a kink in the tube that delivered the anesthesia. So the anesthesiologist decided to top off her epidural. … but Mrs Carberry said the glass container which holds the liquid
shattered, and he said: 'There's nothing else we can do for you.'

She refused general anesthetic since she had lost all trust in her doctors and didn't want to be knocked out for the baby's birth.

'The female surgeon said she could see the baby and needed to get it out. I told them just to get the baby out.

'I
gripped a medic's hand throughout the operation and did breathing
exercises, all the time asking them how long the operation was going to
take, to focus my mind on the end. It was excruciating.

'They had to stitch up muscle, tissue, layers of fat and the skin. I felt it all. It was awful.

… Mrs
Carberry was allowed home with Ruby after four days but had to be
readmitted a week later as the caesarean scar was infected. She spent a
week in hospital while her husband looked after Ruby at home.

The baby is fine and the mother is also, though she still hasn't heard from the hospital regarding an investigation into her case.

Ouch. Ouch, ouch, ouch. I've heard of epidurals not working, but never during a c-section? Anybody else endure a meds-free surgery? 

Photo: The Daily Mail