I well remember a maternal death from asthma in Dublin during a Caesarean section. The anaesthetists were devastated.
What may have caused that was the use of ergometrine after the baby was delivered. This is a risk factor for bronchoconstriction especially when general anaesthesia is combined. In my experience that fact is not well appreciated by clinicians.In Australia 12.7% of pregnant women suffer asthma.One in 9 Australians suffer from asthma: a chronic inflammatory ...

An OASIS injury can have a devastating effect on the life of a young mother who develops incontinence of flatus and faeces.This can happen because the sphincter transections are either not identified ; not repaired correctly or the repair subsequently breaks down. Over time ,especially during the menopause even good repairs can weaken because of progressive loss of smooth muscle and connective tissue.The External Anal Sphincter (EAS) is comprised of striated muscle and is innervated by the pu...

Osteonecrosis of the jaw is a serious but rare complication of bisphosphonate and Prolia treatment for osteoporosis. It is diagnosed when maxillary or mandibular bone becomes exposed whilst medicated with bisphosphonates. The bisphosphonates are a group of drugs which are preferentially incorporated into sites of active bone re-modelling where they inhibit hydroxyapatite breakdown, thereby effectively suppressing bone resorption.Just how bisphosphonates cause osteonecrosis is not well underst...

Boundary violations occur when a doctor behaves in an unprofessional and untrustworthy manner by misusing their power in the doctor-patient relationship. This may result in harming the patient in some way. I guess many of us would have transgressed at least one such boundary such as treating family members. The following are examples of boundary violations:Examples of practitioner-patient boundary breaches include Having a personal and/or sexual relationship with a patient (even a former...

Arlie Loughnan and Mike O’Connor* The deliberate killing of a child by its mother is abhorrent and is associated in the minds of many with mental illness and in particular with postnatal depression. However, at least 50% of perpetrators are neither “mad” nor “bad”, and mothers who kill children are not “unhinged” by pregnancy or childbirth. We propose a different explanation: “blind rage” or “overwhelmed syndrome”, whereby par...