I Went To The Hospital For Delivery And They made a Wrong cut in my C-Section And The Unexpected Took Place – Touching Story

After narrowly escaping death in a blood haemorrhaging, 56-hour labour to deliver her first child, Jess was frightened to say the least when it came time to welcoming her second.

“I didn’t want to go to that same hospital, but there was a different doctor so I thought it would be safe this time around and I had trust in them,” the mum from Warracknabeal, Victoria, tells Kidspot.

To avoid another traumatic labour and emergency C-section ordeal, Jess went ahead with a planned C-section for the birth in February, at Wimmera Base Hospital.

On the day her son, Elijah, was born at full term, the 35-year old could finally feel a rush of relief that she and her newborn were in good health.

Horrifically, that would prove to be anything but the case.

“I told my surgeons something felt wrong”
That same night, Jess began to feel that all was not well.

“I started feeling a lot of pain and was breathless,” she remembers vividly.


“I told the surgeons that this wasn’t how I felt after my last Caesar and something was wrong. But they said, ‘You’re fine’ and gave me some Panadol.”

Five days after the birth, Jess’ pain had escalated beyond anything she could cope with, and she knew if she wasn’t treated immediately, it would be too late.

“I could tell I was dying,” she says without hesitation. “I couldn’t breathe. My lungs had collapsed. There’s this special feeling you get. I had hallucinations and this sense of peace overcame me.”

“I would have passed away that day”
Jess claims it wasn’t until she and her husband Matthew threatened legal action if the hospital failed to investigate her symptoms further that surgeons agreed to operate that same day.

“Until the end, they were still saying, ‘If nothing is wrong, you’ll have a scar there for the rest of your life’, and I had to tell them, ‘It doesn’t matter. I know something is wrong with me’,” she retells.

“I know for a fact I would have passed that day if I didn’t have another operation.” Jess’s instincts would indeed save her life…

“I woke up in a completely different hospital”
Surgeons discovered Jess’ bowel had been mistakenly cut during the C-section, and now half of the organ had “died”, along with part of her intestine and colon.

As they frantically tried to repair the life-threatening damage, an infection had already spread throughout Jess’ pelvis, causing her to become septic and collapsing her lungs.

Incredibly, just 30 minutes after coming out of a five-day induced coma, Jess heard her baby’s cries from the nursery and walked the entire distance unaided to tend to him, where he was being comforted by his dad.

“I woke up in a completely different hospital and I couldn’t see Elijah and I was so panicked,” she recalls emotionally.

“I called out, ‘Where is my baby? I want my baby!’ All that was going through my mind was, ‘I need to feed my baby’. I didn’t care what was wrong with me.”

“I have never been able to swallow again”
Jess took five weeks to recover in hospital, all the while expecting that the damage to her voice box and liquid diet she had to be placed on would be temporary.

Tragically, it was anything but…

“As a direct result of what happened, I’ve lost all motility (movement of food from the mouth through the throat, oesophagus, stomach, small and large intestines and out of the body) so I have never been able to swallow again,” Jess says of the lifelong nightmare she has been forced to live with since Elijah’s birth 10 years ago

“I’m so angry because it wasn’t the first time I’d had something go wrong at this same hospital.”

Heartbreakingly, Jess has lost all hope that she will ever be able to eat normally again, with doctors unable to operate due to her collapsed throat.

“I’m on a liquid diet mostly and on some days, if I’m feeling better, I can have a soft diet such as purees and soups,” Jess, who has lost 45kg in the past three years from a lack of nutrition, says.

During a recent test, Jess’ stomach registered 260 episodes of reflux in just 24 hours

“I feel robbed of my future”
The weak condition of her organs also prevents Jess from being able to be operated on for a hernia growing on her lungs and a cyst on her ovary, which sadly meant Elijah would be the last baby she would ever be able to carry.

“I’ve gone to countless doctors, hopeful that somebody can actually help me,” she says, fighting back tears.

“But I’ve seen a top surgeon in Victoria and even he says there’s nothing that can be done. I feel robbed of my future because of what the hospital did – not only because I couldn’t have babies anymore but for all the things I would have been able to do if this didn’t happen.”

Her health is so frail that she has been hospitalised no less than 40 times since Elijah’s birth.

In August, she suffered an ectopic pregnancy, which led to a painful four-week admission.

Frighteningly, Jess also carries the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes, which makes her a high risk for cancer in her breasts and reproductive organs.

“I never know how I’ll wake up”
The brave mum-of-four, who also has two beloved stepsons – one of whom has proudly made her a grandmother for the first time this month – has to live under the dark cloud that her life could be cut short at any given time.

“My life expectancy isn’t the same as another normal person’s and that’s always in the back of my mind,” she says nervously.

“This [condition] will be something that I pass away from. My lungs will get invaded and the scar tissue is multiplying, covering all my reproductive organs. It’s completely unpredictable as to how things will turn out and I never know how I’ll wake up. I am already the exception because normally, people don’t live past 10 years after the type of sepsis that I had.”

While she makes every effort to remain positive, Jess still lives with the intention that her time with sons, Caleb, 21, Liam, 20, Zach, 17, and Elijah, 10, is all too precious to waste.

“I worry about leaving all the time,” she admits.

“I’m always teaching my boys how to be good men for the future and to have coping skills because if I’m not here, they’ll be able to live for themselves, even when three of them have additional needs (ADHD, ASD and anxiety).”

“Elijah says, ‘It doesn’t matter where you are, Mum, you’ll still be right next to me’. And I tell him, ‘Of course. I’m always going to be in your heart. I’ll be waiting for you and I’ll save you the best seat in the house’.”

“My doctors tell me I should be a recipient of NDIS rather than a provider”
Incredibly, despite her health challenges, Jess does not sit idle. Since last year, she has managed to operate her own business as a NDIS support provider, JessiCares, and proudly employs her son, Zach, who works with teens.

“I want to leave a legacy to my family, friends and the community of what was important to me,” she says.

“My doctors tell me I should be a recipient of NDIS rather than a provider. I tell them that I will one day, but while I can still walk and drive and help people, I will keep doing it. Helping others in my daily life is the purpose that keeps me going.”

Jess has created a Facebook page for her health journey and a GoFundMe campaign to help provide for treatments and pre-paid funeral arrangements.

A Grampians Health spokesperson said Grampians Health will never comment on individual patients “as that would be a breach of confidentiality”.