Hospital missed opportunity to try to save patient's fallopian tube

What happened

Miss F went to an early pregnancy clinic with abdominal pain after a positive pregnancy test. Staff scanned her but could not see a pregnancy in her uterus. Clinicians became concerned that Miss F had an ectopic pregnancy. They referred her to a consultant, who was also unable to see a pregnancy when she carried out a scan.

The consultant made a working diagnosis of early ectopic pregnancy or pregnancy of unknown origin. She advised Miss F to have an injection to stop the pregnancy. Before Miss F could have this, she suffered severe abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding. Trust staff operated and removed a fallopian tube, although it had not ruptured. Laboratory tests found no evidence of pregnancy in the tube.

What we found

We partly upheld this complaint. Miss F came to us with a number of issues. We felt that the Trust had done everything it should have to establish if Miss F had a viable pregnancy. It had correctly advised her to have an injection to stop the pregnancy growing.

However, when Miss F had severe pain and bleeding, staff should have offered her two options, not just one. She should have had the option of an alternative procedure that might have meant that doctors would not have removed her fallopian tube. However, there is no certainty that the tube could have been saved. As a result of what happened, Miss F is left with doubt that everything that could have been done to try to save her fallopian tube was done, as she had wanted.

Putting it right

The Trust apologised for the failings and the impact they had. It paid Miss F £3,000 to acknowledge the upset it had caused her.