Interesting note about the Planet Hospital Bankruptcy

One of the interesting things that occurred as the result of Planet Hospital involuntary bankruptcy is that it established a precedent-  international surrogacy facilitators are classified as healthcare service entities.  

This means that they are subject to HIPAA.   HIPAA fines are given per violation, and are expensive.

It has come to my attention that this blog does "not paint me in a very positive light".  



Allow me to clarify.  Because I trusted the wrong people my youngest son died alone, in a filthy hospital of a bacteria transmitted by human shit.  I wake up every morning and have to confront that fact.  It is the last thing I think about at night.  Regardless of what strangers on the internet think of me, it is NOTHING compared to how I feel about my failure to protect my son.

Secondly, you are welcome to call me culturally intolerant because I have an issue with the quality of health care my child received.  Rest assured I have spoken to several doctors in India.  All of them were horrified by the conditions at the hospital, etc....    This is an example of derailing.  It's used as a way to deflect attention away from the topic at hand. 

Prior to threatening someone with a libel or slander suit, I would suggest that you familiarize yourself with protected speech.  For those who have not yet mastered the art of Goggle-fu  

negative review/ tos

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140924/16444828628/roca-labs-sues-customer-posting-negative-review.shtml

Not only did my son die..

My surrogate could have as well.

The doctor and the hospital have refused to provide records of our surrogate's labor and delivery of the twins.

However, as I have poured over our surrogate's medical records it is very, very clear.

Her blood pressure began rising in JULY.   Despite the fact that it continued to trend higher at each subsequent appointment, despite the fact that she was complaining of dizziness and headache.  They did nothing.

When the twins were born the hospital noted that she had pre-eclampsia.  When we confronted the doctor about it she said, "oh, the hospital just put that on there."

......

Complete Surrogacy Solutions/ Kim Hendrix. Review and Complaint #1

There is one issue I want to talk about today.   The first is that Kim seems to be telling people that Drew and I were not her clients.

It is true that Drew and I did not pay Kim her 8000.00 client fee.  When we first connected with Kim, she told us that she would waive this fee because as a new facilitator, it would be helpful to her to have us as clients.  We had received quite a lot of media exposure as a result of the issues with Planet Hospital and therefore would be in a position to make referrals to her.    I made numerous referrals to Kim throughout our surrogacy.  She introduced me to several people at the Families through Surrogacy conference as her client and frequently asked me to write references for her to prospective clients.

Additionally, I am aware that she was given a 10% referral fee from Dr. Bakshi.

Therefore she was paid both monetarily and in kind.

If Kim was NOT my facilitator, why did Dr. Bakshi only communicate with her when my children were being born?  Why was she given our medical records?   Why was she involved in invoicing payments to the clinic?

Kim, you can't only take credit for the successes.  That's not how this works.  It's not how it works at all.

Medical Professional or not?

http://issurrogacyformepleasesayyes.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/warningkim-waters-hendrix-complete_25.html

What made John disposable and Maizy ignorable?

I'm seeing a parade of cute babies who were born as a result of surrogacy in India and Thailand.  Babies whose parents were helped by Kim Waters Hendrix.

They are really darling.   

Looking at them made me sad though.   What made those parents and those babies more valuable than mine?   Does their existence somehow negate my children and their suffering?   Understand, I am very very glad that those families did not experience what we did.  But there experience does not negate ours.  

John deserved better than this.  He was loved and cherished by his family.  

Mae deserved to have appropriate medical care.  She deserved a relationship with her brother.

Confirmation of my daughter's diagnosis.

Neonatal conjunctivitis and pneumonia due to chlamydia infection

I think this speaks for itself.   

"....there should be zero fear in facing and negative issues head on. " - Kim Hendrix

On July 29, 2013, Kim wrote:  

“Negative press needs to be replaced with positive stories, people need to be able to talk freely and openly about the experiences they have encountered and there should be zero fear in facing and negative issues head on.  Only in dealing with things in a straight forward manner can we be sure that issues are resolved and are not repeated.   We're dealing with human lives, we want it to be a true win win for our surrogates, for our children, and for ourselves.

Kim acknowledged this with this post Freedom to blog about true feelings.... 

Last week, this blog was shut down by an abusive complaint to google.  I was able to restore it in twelve hours.

Yet we're still being harassed and threatened.

Being bullied, harassed, threatened and attacked for "talking freely and openly about the experiences we have encountered"  stinks.

Surrogate medical care matters..

Drew and I choose to have a "facilitator" involved not once, but twice because we knew we didn't have the ability to effectively vet and monitor a clinic on the other side of the planet.  Our facilitator told us that she traveled to India frequently to check on surrogates and make that they were being well taken care of.   During the entire year we were involved with her, she made trips to Thailand and Mexico.  She did not travel to India during our surrogate's pregnancy. When she finally went there after one of her trips to Thailand, we were appalled to find out that it was the first time she had been since the birth of her nephews-  who were almost two years old.  

Prenatal care is absolutely critical to the health and safety of babies.  We were assured repeatedly that our surrogate would have the absolute best care.   Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that was the case. 

A cursory look at our surrogate's medical records indicates that she was tested for iron deficiency on four different occasions.  On three of those occasions, she tested as anemic.  Despite those test results and despite the fact that she was complaining of dizziness and fatigue, there is no evidence in the chart that this was ever treated.  Anemia  in pregnancy increases the risk of post-partum hemorrhage  which can be fatal.  It's also dangerous to the developing fetus and increases the risk of developmental delay.  

Despite supplementation,  which started when I arrived in India,  Maizy was  anemic at her first pediatrician appointment in the US.  Our pediatrician says this is an indication of just how anemic she was at birth.   Her pediatrician believes that her anemia may have contributed to her seizure.  Only time will tell if she will experience  developmental delay as a result.  This was entirely preventable.

In the beginning of the pregnancy, our surrogate had low to normal blood pressure.  However, from twenty weeks on it appears that her blood pressure rose steadily at each appointment.  By the time she delivered the twins, the hospital records indicate that she had pre-eclampsia.  The chart indicates that Mrs. S was complaining of dizziness, headache and visual disturbance.  Despite these clear indications, the clinic did not do a 24 hour urine collection, which would have confirmed the diagnosis.   While she was observed in the hospital overnight at one point there is no indication that they did anything other than give her some fluids.    Pre-clampsia is a very serious medical condition -  left untreated it can result in seizures, stroke and even death.  It seems that they did nothing other than record the fact that this was happening.  The fact that our surrogate survived appears to be a result of luck more than anything else.  When we confronted our facilitator and the doctor about this, they  denied that it was a problem.

We were not the only clients who were concerned that our facilitator had not made the promised trips to India for surrogate monitoring.  When these concerns were brought up to her, she became very defensive and angry and talked about how she needed to make her family a priority.   

If Mrs. S was the only surrogate whose health and safety was put into jeopardy,  I could understand why someone  might think that our situation was an aberration.  Unfortunately, I know that this is not the case.  I can't speculate as to why a facilitator  would continue to refer clients to a clinic where two clients in three months experienced serious complications for their surrogates and their babies.  I don't want to believe that the referral fees are what motivated her,  perhaps she genuinely believes that this care was appropriate.  

We wanted an independent facilitator because we wanted someone to advocate not only for our family, but also for our surrogate.  Our facilitator and our doctor likely feel very differently about our journey than we do.  Regardless of how anyone feels the facts are this:  

•My surrogate had more than one health condition that was not managed appropriately

•My daughter has ongoing health issues directly related to those issues, her prematurity and the facility where she was born.

•My son died.

As an aside,  another surrogacy facilitator, not the one we used,  threatened to take legal action against me because she didn't like what I've said on this blog.  For the record, nothing I have said here constitutes libel or slander.  

She also told me "Your blog does NOT paint you in a positive light."

My child died.  The last thing on my mind is what other people think of me.  Lastly-  bullying a grieving mother says a hell of a lot more about you than it does her.