ParkwayHealth (Shanghai)

2 thoughts on “ParkwayHealth (Shanghai)”

1. I had a baby delivered at ParkwayHealth and my experience was really horrible. The level of care they offer is below any medical standards, even Chinese, not to mention western. They are nothing else but butchers who will not hesitate to put you through hell just to get more money out of you! They completely don’t respect patients rights to information and decision, forcing them to undergo unnecessary procedures for their own convenience and financial gain.
   I was showing up to all the scheduled appointments and had all the necessary tests done. During all those visits I was being assured that everything is in order with both me and the baby and I could expect an uncomplicated natural delivery. I also attended the pre-natal class organized by Parkway, where I was told about different techniques and position the hospital staff uses to facilitate a natural delivery. I also took a hospital tour and saw nice birthing suites with birthing balls and so on. All my questions and concerns at the time of those visits were being dismissed as irrelevant. Have I been told anything is less than perfect and there’s a slightest chance of any complications, I would have chosen to deliver back home.
   The reality has proven to be completely different when I got to the hospital after my waters broke just a few days before my due date. I was ordered to lie flat in bed plugged in to a monitor. I wasn’t even allowed to use the bathroom! Doctors were all too busy with other patients to pay any attention to me, I was left in the care of nurses who could barely communicate in English and were even struggling to put a needle in my arm. All they did was not letting me do anything: eat, drink, even move, just in case I need a c-section. But actually there were doing everything to make sure I’m going to need one! The only updates I was getting on my progress where in the terms of hours – the baby will be born in 8, 4, 2 hours. But all the time I was again being assured that everything is on the right track and the baby is healthy and strong. When the time they “designated” for my delivery has passed, I was accused by the attending doctor that: “I’m not pushing, I don’t want the baby to be born and because of that I need to have a c-section”. Since I strongly refused, I was just left for another hour in excruciating pain from the meds they’d given me to allegedly strengthen my contractions and at the same time denied any pain relief! Then my husband was actually threatened that both me and the baby will DIE unless he signs the consent form for the surgery! Even after that I was denied pain relief ant it took almost an hour to get me to the operating room, which only proves that there was no real emergency! I was in so much pain during that time that I literally begged them to kill me. But that was just the beginning of my horror…

   Once on the operating table (which does not even belong to Parkway, but to a Chinese hospital downstairs, and so does all its staff!), I was finally administered epidural anesthesia, but apparently not properly, because when the operating doctor made the incision, I felt enormous pain, pressure and burning sensation. I started screaming at the top of my lungs, but even that didn’t stop the doctor from leaning with the whole weight of her body on my belly while chatting to her colleague and therefore adding up to my torture. Only after she was done chatting the doctor kicked my husband out of the OR and ordered general anesthesia. That is all I remember from the birth of my baby. It was by far the worst day of my life.

   To add insult to injury, before leaving the hospital we were told that our baby might be deaf only because the unqualified nurses couldn’t conduct the hearing test, might have stomach ulcer and internal bleeding or even might have some neurological disorder. Luckily for us, none of it was true, but nevertheless it inflicted a great amount of stress on first-time parents like us. Also on my follow up check-up the doctor didn’t even know exactly what kind of stitches I had in my incision, so she removed part of it and left the rest inside, like it didn’t really matter. It also didn’t matter that there was a gushing hole left in the middle of the incision. It took quite a few months to heal and because of that created a really ugly scar, that is visible even under clothing.

   I’ve been trying to follow up on the reasons that led to my allegedly emergency surgery but each doctor from the clinic I spoke to was coming up with different and crazier explanations including that: “my baby was to small to be born naturally”?! I’ve sent numerous e-mails to the management of ParkwayHealth demanding clarification on the substandard service I received from them. I was not only denied logical explanation or apologies for all the damages their staff caused, but even denied access to my full medical records! Not to mention that my discharge reports were full of obvious mistakes and/or lies. If it were any other country, this fact alone would be enough of a reason to sue the hospital. So if you value your health and well-being, stay away from ParkwayHealth.

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   • Wow. This sounds absolutely horrible! Thank you for sharing your experience in such detail.

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