In September 2015, the woman arrived at Skåne University Hospital in Lund to begin the induction of labour. She was told to return the next day so that she could be induced.
On her way home she started to experience headaches and contacted the clinic, but their advice was to wait until contractions were more regular.
When she returned the following day however, her unborn child had died.
In accordance with Sweden’s patient safety laws, the hospital reported the incident to the country’s Health and Social Care Inspectorate.
And in its report the hospital wrote that the incident would probably have had a different outcome if the woman had remained at the clinic. It also wrote that the number of places in the perinatal department would be expanded in the future.
“This is a really tragic event and our thoughts are with the family. We are now working to expand the number of beds,” Jessica Wixell Callmer, acting director at Skåne University Hospital told Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet.
Overcrowding has been a problem for Swedish hospitals for a number of years.
In 2014, a Swedish man had to help his fiancée give birth to their baby in the back of a taxi because the family was turned away by a midwife, who said there wasn't a hospital bed available for them in all of Stockholm.
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