Although a woman’s rare condition was finally diagnosed correctly by doctors after numerous medical tests were performed, doctors did make one assumption about her condition that was incorrect. Now, the 23-year-old woman is pregnant and she is at risk of suffering permanent injuries when it comes time for the labor, delivery and birth of her baby.
In October 2009, the woman was diagnosed with a rare condition known as complex regional pain syndrome. She sought treatment from doctors after she began to experience unbearable pain that started in her foot. The pain worsened and doctors initially thought that the woman would need to have her leg amputated because it had become so swollen and bruised. She underwent numerous tests while doctors attempted to diagnose her condition. After cancer and arthritis were ruled out, doctors finally diagnosed her with CRPS.
Symptoms of this incurable disease include chronic pain. In this woman’s case, she experiences permanent pain wherever she suffers an injury on her body. In addition to learning that she had been diagnosed with CRPS and would suffer from the disease for the rest of her life, the woman was told that she would also not be able to get pregnant. However, the woman is now seven months pregnant, and doctors do not know how her illness will affect her body when she gives birth to her baby.
Although she is happy about the pregnancy, she is concerned about what could happen to her. Doctors claim that they have never known of anyone who was her age with CRPS who also had a child.
Like any other birth, doctors will need to properly monitor and assess this woman’s condition and her unborn baby’s condition while she is in labor in order to make appropriate choices if anything should happen to go wrong. Failing to monitor the woman and her child or any other type of negligence could cause the woman to suffer further injuries — even paralysis — in addition to the ones she is prepared to suffer because of her rare medical condition.
Source: Daily Mail, “Woman with rare condition to have baby even though labour could trigger a lifetime of pain,” May 11, 2012
