I am a junior doctor currently working as a clinical fellow at Southmead for the 30 bed A&E department overnight. After returning to the UK in August 2019 I started at a 48 bed tertiary intensive care unit in Bristol, managing critically unwell patients including several patients with ectopic pregnancies on a daily basis.
My time in A&E has given me first-hand experience of how dangerous an ectopic pregnancy can be, made worse by the fact that it often presents in such an innocuous manner. I remember a specific case of a 40 year old lady presenting with a week of mild abdominal pain. She had a positive pregnancy test and I diagnosed an ectopic pregnancy. She was taken straight for surgery and was found to have over 4 litres of blood in her pelvis! Fortunately she made a full recovery however if she had waited even a few more hours to come to hospital the outcome could have been very different. I learnt quickly to consider an ectopic pregnancy in any lady with abdominal pain of child-bearing age.
I fully support all the hard work the Ectopic Pregnancy Foundation does to raise awareness and improve care for women who suffer from this life-threatening condition. I will apply to run the 2020 London Marathon to raise awareness and funding for the Ectopic Pregnancy Foundation.
Skip to content