After re-telling our experience to a few friends they suggested we write a letter to the manager.  We got a phone call today (3/2) that the person we had addressed the letter to was not the manager, but she was passing it along to the appropriate person.  In the end everything is fine (or so we believe, we'll have to see what the report says when we meet with our midwives), but this is not the experience one should have when having their ultrasound.

I was told by your staff that you are the manager of the TRA facility on Lily. I would like to share our experience of our last ultrasound, a 20 week fetal ultrasound, which took place on Tuesday 23^rd February. We believe the technicians name was Shari, although she never did introduce herself.  That is the name we believe was on the certificates hanging on the wall of the room we were in.

Let me start by saying during our other two pregnancies we had a lovely tech, whose name eludes me. Unfortunately this experience left us both upset, we wish we could have requested the tech we had on prior experiences.

We had our 18 month old daughter with us, and the first thing the technician told us was that if she made a fuss I would be asked to leave with her. Her tone and demeanor, almost instantly upset our daughter, who prior to this point had been in an excellent mood and was engaging with your front desk staff and other patients in the waiting room.  We had prepped her for what to expect from the ultrasound by talking about what would happen and showing her photos from her ultrasounds as well as photos of pregnant women having ultrasounds done.

My wife was asked if she wanted to know the sex. Which we did. I was in the room too. It was our decision, not only my wife.  I understand that my wife is the patient, but we are both the parents.  The next thing we were asked was how many pregnancies we had had. This is our third. We lost our twins with our first pregnancy at 23 weeks. The technician then looked at our daughter and asked how many live births we had. With absolutely no feeling. She seriously needs some sensitivity training. At that point we probably should have asked for another technician. I suggest she attends a PS Support Group meeting so she understands what it is like to lose a child.

Our daughter continued to cry, so I let her get down on the floor and she walked toward the wall monitor and the tech snapped at us that she shouldn’t be allowed to wander around the room, so I stood with her by the wall monitor and she started to calm down but I was asked to leave anyhow. Not the experience we had all looked forward to. I was extremely disappointed, as was my wife. I came back in a few minutes later, as my daughter instantly calmed down on leaving the room. On entering the room again she started crying and I asked if the sex had been determined yet. It had not, and the technician looked and told us. No joy in her voice at all.  I then left the office completely and waited in the car with my daughter.

When my wife arrived back at the car she shared that the technician was in no better mood for the rest of the ultrasound. In fact she was berated for drinking too much water because the tech kept having her go to empty her bladder.  She informed the technician that she had drunk no more than the 24 ounces prescribed, and then she was left laying on the table in the room with the technician leaving saying, “If you can wait there, I need to talk to the radiologist about something.”  Now again, as parents who have lost children, that is one of the scariest things that we could have heard.

We shared our experience with a number of friends, and all said we should notify the office of our experience. We are lucky enough to know we just got horrible service. First time parents would be left with a different perspective.  In contrast to the other tech we have had it was like night and day.  The previous tech we had would tell us what she was looking at, why, what was normal for this stage in development, the measurements she was taking, if we wanted photos of different things, etc.  This tech did not tell us anything about what she was doing, measuring, or looking at.  Only from past experiences did my wife know what she was looking at.  The tech selected the photos to print, and my wife said there were some great ones that she would have liked to have.