A traumatised woman has alleged that she was forced by medics to hold her baby inside a biohazard bag after suffering a miscarriage.
Nikkole Southwell was 12 weeks pregnant when she lost her child in April, and was rushed to Ipswich Hospital in Queensland, Australia for emergency treatment.
But she says she was left by paramedics in the waiting room with the bag and only sheets around her waist - in full view of other patients.
When taken in, she claims she was also made to lie on a bed stained with the blood of another patient, and says medics also used her partner’s phone torch to perform a cervix examination, rather than actual medical equipment.
After suffering active bleeding, she was discharged several hours later after doctors were confident her cervix had closed, but would returned on several further occasions after experiencing haemorrhaging and complications.
At one stage she claims she had to plead with staff for a scan, which eventually showed she may have suffered uterine arteriovenous malformation AVM - a potentially life-threatening type of vaginal bleeding.
Nikkole says the whole experience at the hospital has left her feeling shocked and let down - with the indignity of reportedly having to hold her baby in a plastic bag in a shared area of the hospital hurting the most.
She told The Queensland Times: "I lost my baby and my dignity was taken.
"I felt like my baby meant nothing while it sat in the top of my handbag in a biohazard bag for all to see."
As she comes to terms with her loss, Nikkole has since posted poems in tribute her baby on a Facebook page for bereaved parents.
One read: "Avoid the triggers they said, they often forget, this one place, my own body, the place that I cannot avoid was your only home, now feels like an empty vessel, stitched with the memories in everything I do."
Queensland Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Shannon Fentiman has since ordered a review into the incident, and has pledged a new focus on women's health in the state.
She said: "This is a heartbreaking situation and I want to extend my deepest sympathies to Ms Southwell and her family,
"There is a review under way, and I look forward to receiving all recommendations from the review."
