I think this Oregon hospital deserves to be sued.

[pnwmom]

They gave a postpartum mother narcotics and sleeping pills. And while she was sleeping they left her newborn with her for an hour. She woke up and found him unresponsive. He had died of lack of oxygen.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/10/us/oregon-child-death-suit/index.html

"Jacob was a true miracle baby," Monica Thompson said in a statement provided to CNN by her lawyer. "My firstborn and only son. I am sharing our story in the hopes that no mother or family will ever have to suffer through a preventable tragedy such as this."

Thompson said Jacob was taken to a nursery late on August 5, 2012 so she "could rest before being discharged." She was given narcotic painkillers and sleep aids.

Around 3 a.m. on August 6, a provider, identified in the lawsuit as Nurse X, took the boy from the nursery to Thompson's room for breastfeeding. The nurse "left the room and left the mother and son unattended," the suit alleges.

"This was a tragic event and our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the family," Portland Adventist Medical Center said in a statement. "Adventist Medical Center is committed to providing quality, compassionate care to all of our patients. We are reviewing the claims being made and we are unable to provide any additional information at this time."

[LisaL]

1. And why did they want her to breasfeed to begin with?

She was on heavy duty meds. Wouldn't that be dangerous to the infant?

[pnwmom]

2. Good question. It makes no sense. n/t

[Weekend Warrior]

4. Many women are on narcotics before, during, and immediately after giving birth.

At certain levels it's normally accepted. It is also dependent on the drug itself.

Editing to add: She has a case here. I'm not negating that.

[pnwmom]

6. She was given narcotics AND sleeping pills, and she had sent the baby to the nursery

so she could rest.

[Weekend Warrior]

7. I agree that the child should have never been left alone in the room with her.

The poster posed the question about breastfeeding and narcotics. Not being left alone.

[Ilsa]

9. I wonder if they asked the mom, "do you want us to bottle feed

the baby if you are asleep?" and tell her," if the baby refuses the bottle, we will bring him to breastfeed."

(My first refused the bottle and only nursed after the first two days. )

[LisaL]

10. But even if they asked her (which we don't know) since she was on sleep aid and

pain killers, one would think the nurse shouldn't have left the baby on the bed with her.

[Ilsa]

16. Agreed, but those plans, some call them contracts, are usually

set up before a woman delivers. The nurse may not have known what the mother had been given, unless she was her nurse, too.

I'm wondering if a communication failure is part of the problem.

[Ilsa]

8. There's a whole lot of, "It depends," in this situation.

I'm not sure what narcotics she had been given for postpartum or C-Section pain relief, but I nursed my healthy full-term baby immediately after birth and during the first 24 hours when I was on a morphine pump. During the first 24 hours, the baby sleeps alot and doesn't feed as much. I don't know what day postpartum they were here.

Plus, some medications don't pass into breastmilk, or so little passes that it is not considered to be dangerous. Molecule size and protein-binding are also key. Dr. Thomas Hale's Medications and Mother's Milk was considered to be the Bible on

I think the nurse should have made certain the mother was fully awake and should have checked on her every 10-15 minutes. So, yes, I think there might be liability by the hospital.

[LisaL]

11. It was reportedly vicodin and ambien that she was given.

[Weekend Warrior]

12. Both are considered to be relatively safe for breastfeeding.

You still don't leave a child alone in bed with a mother who has requested sleep before being released, especially while taking medications like this.

[MyNameIsKhan]

17. Women after C-Section child birth are normally prescribed Oxycontin and Percocet as pain reliever

Some even given shot of Fentanyl as last resort but they are encouraged to breast feed, none of them are considered dangerous for new borns if given in safe amounts. C-Section is a major abdominal surgery.

[pnwmom]

14. Remember that the mother was also give SLEEP meds. No one is supposed to take a sleep med

unless they can actually sleep for 8 hours. The nurse brought the baby to the mother at 3 am when she was still supposed to be sleeping.

Also, opioids can suppress breathing, and opioids in breastmilk can, too. The mother wasn't awake (because of the sleep meds) so she wasn't in shape to watch the baby and make sure he was okay.

In other words, she might not have even rolled over on him. His breathing might have been suppressed by the medications.

[Ilsa]

15. The sleep medication would likely be too much, especially ambien.

IV morphine has been used safely for the first day or so, with low levels in newborns, so yes, it can make the baby drowsier than normal, but still manageable for the first day. Vicodin is less safe than morphine.

It sounds like the night nurse either didn't know that the mother had been drugged, or they didn't have a plan settled with the mom for dealing with a hungry newborn. It appears communication was poor. I wonder if their set-up is for the nurse to have both mom and baby assigned to them, or was that nurse only working in the nursery?

I'm surprised the mother needed Ambien if she was still on vicodin.

[Ms. Toad]

19. I'm surprised she needed Ambien - on top of the narcotics

But as for being "too much," as a general rule - ambien is a hypnotic, and a pretty mild one.

I know there are horror stories with Ambien, no one should ever start taking it without a trusted loved one who can monitor behavior for the first few nights, and people who have ever experienced those side effects should probably not take the drug again.

But for anyone else, it is pretty innocuous. I've taken it safely off and on for nearly a decade - perhaps a total of 400 nights in that period (i.e. perhaps one night in 10). It allows me to sleep when I can't turn off the "monkey chatter" in my brain enough to get to sleep (or to fall back asleep when I wake up a few hours later). It has never prevented me from waking up - any more than the Netflix chatter I mostly use to drown out the "monkey chatter" prevents me from waking up, and I have never been less than fully alert when I wake up. Even when I need to wake up in less than a full night. Unlike other sleep aids, the only "hang-over" I've experienced is that when I've taken it for several days in a row I have a higher than average number of incidences of aphasia (ability to recall the correct word).

[kcr]

3. I agree.

That baby should never have been left with her alone while she was in that state.

[leftstreet]

5. edit

The baby died 10 days later. Read it wrong

Those poor people - all of them. What a tragedy

[Ninsianna]

13. Wow. What the hell?

My friend just went through this last year. The mother of his child fell asleep while breastfeeding and the baby suffocated. That was at home though, there is no excuse for this happening in an hospital where the mother was medicated.

My heart goes out to the family.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. How horribly sad.