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CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - Honestly, I don’t know what it is about naval doctors that turn so many people away from being treated by these sailors with years upon years of medical practice and experience under their belts. Maybe it’s due to the misconception that they don’t receive enough medical training before hitting the Fleet, or due to the friendly Navy-Marine Corps rivalry taken to ludicrous lengths. Either way, the manifestation of this dislike is usually within the maternity section of naval medicine; more specifically, the maternity practices at Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune.
I cannot recall how many times I’ve heard “horror stories” from Marines and their spouses discrediting the reputation of naval medicine, but moreso in how many expecting parents are reluctant to receive care at NHCL, opting instead to be seen out in town. I think the greater population is uneasy about the training the doctors, nurses and midwives receive as opposed to their counterparts in the civilian sector. This, however, is not where a thin line separating the two training regimens exists, but no line at all.
To start, all doctors, nurses and midwives must be registered nurses before starting any sort of medical training. Afterward, midwives for instance, those who deliver the babies in the hospital, go to college for their master’s degree in midwifery, learning their trade and undergoing clinical residencies at a certified civilian college. In terms of training, naval medical practitioners actually learn more than their civilian counterparts, if you include the various other naval training programs they go through, but in terms of overall medical knowledge, they are side-by-side any other civilian doctor.
It is always the curse of reputation, however, that the negative stories tend to stand out more than the positive. One bad comment toward a doctor can outshine a dozen good ones, and it is these negative reviews made about such doctors, nurses and midwives that are taken into account when deciding where to be treated and eventually give birth. It is for this sake, that I now recount my birth experience with my wife at NHCL and how it was one of the best displays of medical attentiveness I have witnesses to date.
My wife was 39 weeks during a routine check-up when, due to a series of isolated spikes in blood pressure and above-average protein in her urine, it was decided she would be induced to prevent any possible future complications. Many people might think that acting upon these signs might be jumping the gun, that is in fact one of the hospital’s more endearing qualities – leaving no possible stone unturned when it comes to patient safety, never being the type of practice to push patients out the door to see the next one in line until all possible avenues are checked. That was the case when it came to my wife being induced from these seemingly trivial signs; she might have been perfectly safe if her labor came about naturally, but there is that chance where something serious could have happened.
My wife was in labor for a solid 28 hours, with her fighting the ever-growing contractions while I tried to sneak an hour of sleep in here and there when I could. Throughout the afternoon, night and following morning of that time, there was a steady pattern of various nurses and doctors checking up on her to ensure she was as comfortable as she could be and making any adjustments needed to her medication or taking various labs. As the day shift personnel switched to night shift and subsequently back to day, there was never a hole in the understanding of my wife’s conditions and the intricacies of her treatment – every different nurse and doctor seemed to naturally be on the same wavelength, even though there were three other women in labor on deck.
Then the time came where my wife’s cervix was dilated to nine centimeters and the contractions were two minutes apart. A nurse explained the birthing and breathing methods to my wife, and for the next two hours the nurse coached her in pushing. When he was far enough along, eight more nurses, doctors and one midwife flooded the room and quickly set up everything they needed, and 20 minutes later our son was brought into the world.
That might not sound like much of a birth story, but let me break it down and explain how that one day in the Labor and Delivery Ward of the Naval hospital convinced me that NHCL is among the best hospitals in the Department of Defense. When the time came, no loss of personnel was felt anywhere in the birthing process; the whole thing ran like a 25-jewel Swiss watch, each individual knowing exactly what their separate tasks were and executed them with the utmost proficiency and speed. In a few short minutes the baby and placenta were out and cleaned up, a tear was sewn up and initial tests and documentation were taken and ran before I could even figure out what everyone was doing all at once.
My wife and I are now at home with a one-month old son, healthy and active as ever. I hate to think, however, if those small initial precautions were not taken and something serious could have arisen if my wife was not induced.
From start to finish, everyone was attentive, understanding and ready to help in any way necessary, and many other stories confirm just that about other birthing experiences. However, as I have stated before, these positive experiences often are drowned out by a few negative ones, falsely discrediting the performance of the naval hospital. There are those who still opt to be seen out in town.
According to Virginia Beach Circuit Court records, a Dr. Enrique Tomeu was directly involved in seven malpractice lawsuits in a 10-year span. Three of those lawsuits were similar: when Tomeu delivered the baby, his violent delivery procedures resulted in the infants incurring shoulder dystocia, which results in a form of paralysis that can leave the shoulder, arm and hand permanently disabled. Due to his lawsuits, Tomeu left Virginia in 2004 for New Zealand, where after a year of establishing his medical practice his delivery methods resulted in the death of a newborn.
Pending investigation in New Zealand, Tomeu returned to the United States to continue practice – at the Crist Clinic for Women in Jacksonville, N.C. from August 2006 to December 2009. To date, he is now employed in Kenansville, N.C., still continuing to deliver newborns.
Yet with healthcare practitioners like that out and about, there are those who distrust NHCL enough to want to risk being seen by them, although I am sure the ratio of doctors like Tomeu as opposed to the rest is greatly unbalanced. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the Bureau of Naval Medicine would allow any sailor with that sort of record to continue their service. Zero.
The aforementioned doctor was not mentioned for the use of scare tactics, nor is this entire editorial written as an effort to bolster public participation in NHCL. It is, however, an effort to dispel the negative outlook on not only NHCL, but all naval hospitals on the whole, that were formed strictly from the few negative experiences that might have been for whatever individual reason. Sailors engaged in a medical capacity are trained just as well and as long as any civilian counterpart as well as being more heavily monitored due to their military service. Put faith in your naval hospital – there is absolutely no need not to.
| Date Taken: | 09.15.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 09.15.2011 16:31 |
| Story ID: | 77094 |
| Location: | CAMP LEJEUNE, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 70 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, NCHL delivers new reputation, by GySgt Jonathan Wright, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
