I am an Ultrasound Technician.

Ultrasound Technician performed Ultrasound improperly?

• My wife went in for an ultrasound and checkup at 12 weeks, the ultrasound technician did the vaginal one without putting the plastic slip over the end. When we got home my wife was bleeding, she went back to have them check it out, the doctor was rude and refused to do anything. She is now on day 2 of bleeding and cramps, my wife called the doctor and asked to be seen, he said he would refuse to see her and said if she went to the ER they would do another ultrasound and we would probably lose the baby. I'm not sure what we should do at this point, my wife is still cramping and bleeding, any advise?

• Answer:

  Wow - it is unclear if the ultrasound was done improperly - an ultrasound should not make your wife bleed. The question is whether or not she is bleeding from a pregnancy-related problem, such as placenta previa (the placenta lying over the outlet to the uterus) or simply irritation of the cervix, which could result in a little bleeding from irritation after the ultraound, and that is not usually a significant problem. A quick look is all it would take to determine that, and of course it will help knowing what the ultrasound showed. It is too bad her doctors are not very considerate or compassionate. A lot of what we do in medicine is quick looks in order to make sure everything is OK and to reassure ourselves AND the patient. You are not asking too much here. Of course, if she went to the ER and got a compassionate ER doc they might simply take a look and be able to reassure her. Why would they threaten you that she might lose the baby if they did another ultrasound? That is mean and is not true anyway.