What happens when hospitals make mistakes?
Andreea Tamaian, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Regina is putting the medical field under a microscope.
“It’s expected in all of us that we should trust the system and that the system has our best interest at heart, and I think it’s important to show the instances where that doesn’t happen,” Tamaian said.
Tamaian calls this institutional betrayal: how the actions or inactions of the medical system affects its patients. It usually comes back to how they’re treated. These negative experiences can lead to a mistrust of the medical system.
“There was always that doubt planted in my mind that it was something that I had done,” Monica Pagett said
For Monica Pagett, it even meant questioning if her child would be taken away from her.
“As a parent, you never know what they’re going to question you on, whether what you’re doing is right or wrong,” Pagett lamented.
Monica Pagett’s son was born two weeks early. He suffered from inexplicable tremors which prompted tough questions from a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) pediatrician.
“It’s 17 years later and it still bothers me to this day. She wanted to know what drugs I had done when I was pregnant, what I had drunk, why I was pregnant, how I was planning on supporting my child,” an emotional Pagett commented.
She says she hadn’t consumed drugs or alcohol during her pregnancy, but claims medical staff seemed to be keeping her in the dark.
“During the time that he was in the NICU, they continued to take blood tests. The one time that I went in, he was gone, so I asked the nurse ‘where is my child?’ She said they took him for a brain ultrasound – without my knowledge, without my consent.”
Tamaian’s study has over a hundred mothers with similar stories across the country. Mothers who felt they lacked informed consent, who believe they weren’t listened to or felt disrespected.
“In the medical system, you come in, you give birth, you go home, and you’re done. People feel like there’s a lot of experiences they’ve had that they haven’t been able to process, they didn’t know who to go to,” Tamaian explained.
She’s studying how institutional betrayal affects these women’s mental health long-term. She says common symptoms are depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress related injuries.
In Pagett’s case, it left her skeptical of the medical system and unsure of her ability as a parent.
“There was always that doubt planted in my mind that it was something that I had done, that maybe I did do something that caused him to come early, to be in the NICU, and the health problems that he went through in the first few years. It was always in the back of my mind that it was something I did.” Pagett ruminated.
Tamaian’s research is the first of its kind in Canada. The study will be complete in May, and she hopes it can be a catalyst for change.
“What’s been going on doesn’t necessarily work for the benefit of patients, so something might need to change,” Tamaian asserted.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority was unavailable for comment on her research.
Tamaian is currently conducting a study with pregnant women due in March and April both before, and after childbirth to better understand the kind of medical events that lead to institutional betrayal, as well as the individual factors that influence how the event is perceived.
The study is still accepting applicants nation-wide, anyone who would like to take part can email tamaiana@uregina.ca.
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