The last time Mii Teuru-Bates set eyes on her daughter was just weeks after she was born.
After three decades of perfect sight, the mother-of-10 went blind within a fortnight of giving birth to her little girl, Riteria, and tonight told The Project how painful the intervening four years have been.
“I can’t see anything now. It is black and white. Black is like darkness, no little dots of light,” she said.
Within a day of being discharged from the Rockingham Hospital in Western Australia, Mii knew something was wrong.
Despite 30 degree heat and three blankets, she was "freezing". But when she returned the hospital staff simply gave her painkillers and sent her home.
After a week, with symptoms worsening, Mii was rushed to Perth Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and into intensive care where it is alleged a piece of her placenta was found inside her, causing her to become critically ill.
It's believed the resulting infection may have cost her her sight.
"I wish I could see where I'm going, to see my children, if their rooms are clean, also their clothes they are wearing, if it's clean," Mii told The Project.
"They always ask me to read this book and I always tell them that, 'I can't...I can't help you.'"
Mii's husband was forced to give up his job as a motor mechanic care for his family full time, and while their ten kids, age 4-19, help out where possible, it's not easy.
"I am very, very angry. I'm very angry and very, like, frustrated every day, since day one until today. I don't want to lose my husband and also my children. I want to see them again," she said.
The Rockingham General Hospital was unable to comment on the case due to confidentiality requirements but told The Project in a statement "patient safety is our highest priority and we are cooperating fully with legal proceedings”.
Top Comments
That's absolutely awful. One of the most important things that you need to be able to do as a nurse / doctor / midwife is to check the placenta to see if it's complete once it's been delivered. Because if it's not, well, stuff like this can happen. Women can die.
I very much hope that she receives an enormous amount of financial compensation for such an error.
When I did Midwifery, it was standard practice to measure and check the placenta carefully and then record the examination in the casenotes.
It still is, that definitely hasn't changed. I would say that in this case the missing piece was somehow not picked up :(