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HEALTH

Contraceptive coil miss causes 25 years of pain

Chronic pain, bleeding and a miscarriage – these were all ailments that befell a woman from Östersund, in the the north of Sweden, caused by a forgotten contraceptive coil lodged in the woman’s body for a quarter of a century.

Contraceptive coil miss causes 25 years of pain

“I decided to get an intra-uterine device (IUD) against unwanted pregnancy in the mid 1980’s,” the anonymous woman told the local paper Östersunds Länstidning.

But after getting the coil in place the woman started to feel bad and she suspected she was pregnant. After a home pregnancy test confirmed that the woman had conceived, she decided to keep the baby.

But a few months into the pregnancy the woman had a miscarriage. She started bleeding heavily and upon arrival to the local hospital she subseqnthly miscarried.

“At the hospital I told the nurses that I had got pregnant despite my IUD, but it was as if they didn’t belive me. When I asked where the coil was now, they said that there was nothng left and that it must have gone down the toilet,” the woman told the paper.

The woman, who thought that was an odd answer, felt as if the staff were making fun of her.

After a few days in the hospital, the woman was discharged and went home.

But in the 25 years that followed she has suffered from recurrent bleeds with pain and “pins and needles” in her back. Despite trying for a baby several times, the woman never conceived again.

Despite seeking medical advice on numerous occasions, it wasn’t until this year that a new midwife decided to make a more rigourous examination.

When test results came back showing no cancer, the midwife sent the woman for an x-ray and after a quarter of a century, the coil was discovered, lodged in the woman’s lower abdomen.

The woman is now reporting the incident to the Medical Responsibility Board (Hälso- och Sjukvårdens Ansvarsnämnd – HSAN). She wants both satisfaction and financial compensation.

“The health services must take their patients more seriously. There is always a reason why you seek medical advice,” she told Östersunds Länstidning.

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HEALTH

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

Danish Minister for the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde has warned that, despite increasing activity at hospitals, it will be some time before current waiting lists are reduced.

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

The message comes as Løhde was set to meet with officials from regional health authorities on Wednesday to discuss the progress of an acute plan for the Danish health system, launched at the end of last year in an effort to reduce a backlog of waiting times which built up during the coronavirus crisis.

An agreement with regional health authorities on an “acute” spending plan to address the most serious challenges faced by the health services agreed in February, providing 2 billion kroner by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: What exactly is wrong with the Danish health system?

The national organisation for the health authorities, Danske Regioner, said to newspaper Jyllands-Posten earlier this week that progress on clearing the waiting lists was ahead of schedule.

Some 245,300 operations were completed in the first quarter of this year, 10 percent more than in the same period in 2022 and over the agreed number.

Løhde said that the figures show measures from the acute plan are “beginning to work”.

“It’s positive but even though it suggests that the trend is going the right way, we’re far from our goal and it’s important to keep it up so that we get there,” she said.

“I certainly won’t be satisfied until waiting times are brought down,” she said.

“As long as we are in the process of doing postponed operations, we will unfortunately continue to see a further increase [in waiting times],” Løhde said.

“That’s why it’s crucial that we retain a high activity this year and in 2024,” she added.

Although the government set aside 2 billion kroner in total for the plan, the regional authorities expect the portion of that to be spent in 2023 to run out by the end of the summer. They have therefore asked for some of the 2024 spending to be brought forward.

Løhde is so far reluctant to meet that request according to Jyllands-Posten.

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