Someone has been doing their homework: A Misdiagnosis Story

At 23 weeks pregnant, Tarra Lyons was on a trip with her husband, Dave Miles, when she noticed she had been leaking fluid for a few days. Lyons visited a local hospital and was examined and monitored for four hours. She was told it wasn't amniotic fluid and was sent home. By the time they got back to Berkeley, Lyons had a fever. Doctors discovered she had no amniotic fluid left. There was no way they could save her son Morgan. He was born alive at 1 pound and died less than two hours later.

"I was a high-risk pregnancy and I wasn't treated as such," Lyons said of the doctors at the first hospital she visited. She was later diagnosed with an incompetent cervix. After spending months researching her options and talking with other parents through online support groups, the 41-year-old believed getting a stitch called a cerclage to keep her cervix closed was her best course of action.

When she learned she was having twins, she was even more convinced it was the right thing to do. But her OB told her the procedure was unnecessary. She sought a second opinion and got a similar response.

"He had a preconceived idea that incompetent cervix was extremely rare and could not be the cause of the loss," Lyons said. She started to doubt the doctors and the treatment she was getting. "I felt like they didn't care, like I was the only one who cared," Lyons said. "When I would point out the research, the doctors would say, 'Oh someone has been doing their homework.' And I thought, 'Yeah, but you're not.'"

Seeking a third opinion, she went to a well-known high-risk perinatologist in San Francisco who finally advocated the cerclage. He told her that common practice is to perform it only after at least two losses. He said while 25 percent of the cerclages performed might turn out to be unnecessary, he would rather do one that is unnecessary than not do one that is.

After doing the cerclage, the doctor told Lyons he was 100% convinced she had needed the procedure: Her cervix had already dilated, and "looked like I had had several kids."

"I had to trust my judgment, I had to listen to my intuition," Lyons said. "I am so glad I changed doctors and asked for another opinion." Her twins, Fiona and Pearson, were born healthy at 37 weeks in January.

Dr. Sarah Kye Price, a professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work, said mothers tend to become experts in whatever may have caused their loss. Price found that 25% of women in the United States had one or more fetal deaths before having a live birth. "It is important for women to be self advocating. Ask a lot of questions and take charge of their experience and not see it as a weakness."

Advice to pregnant women: Do your homework, like Tarra. Get an additional medical opinion, from a different hospital, and a doctor in a different medical group.

Read another childbirth story, or read Suzanne Pullen’s source story in the San Francisco Chronicle.