A routine epidural turns deadly

Lea Thompson Chief consumer correspondent • Profile

WASHINGTON, D.C. - It was sunlit, summer Saturday, a perfect day for a wedding— and Julie Ellis and Chris LeMoult are the picture perfect bride and groom.

They were college sweethearts who had been through their romantic ups and downs, but their love grew even stronger over the years.

As husband and wife, their future was as bright as Julie’s dazzling smile.

It seemed as if Julie and Chris had the world on a string. In their late 20s, they have blossoming careers, Julie with the Discovery Channel, Chris in commercial real estate. Theirs is a storyline right out of a Hollywood movie, and the couple knew how the next scene should play.

Julie becomes a mother to be
April 2, 2003: Chris and Julie thought it would be the happiest day of their happy life.

But it wasn’t going to be a routine delivery. In fact, what is about to happen to Julie may be a cautionary tale for anyone heading for the hospital. They could not have imagined that a day beginning with so much joy could end the way it did.

According to Julie’s hospital records, she was admitted at 7:05 a.m., and a half hour later, her vital signs are taken. Temperature, pulse and white blood count were all normal. Julie appears the picture of health.

The excited parents-to-be decide to make a home movie for their new baby.

Chris teases her about her hospital gown. An intravenous line is inserted into her arm, and Julie is given the drug that will induce labor. The business of having this baby begins.

Chris and Julie talk their way through it on the home video.

Chris LeMoult: It is 8:11 in the morning, right on schedule. We’ll get going. Get this show on the road. And there’s Mommy again. Mommy looks great. Say a few words.

Julie LeMoult: Excited to meet you, a little nervous but—like I said one needle down, one big one to go. And it will all be worth it.

That “big needle” Julie is nervous about is the epidural, an anesthesia injection into the lower back near the spine. Its drugs numb the abdominal and pelvic area to ease the pain of child birth.

Epidurals are not without risk—but they are used in 60 percent of all births, and usually, there’s not a problem.

Julie gets her epidural at 9:55 a.m., and there is a problem.

Chris Lemoult:  She had a blotchy face, she immediately—felt lethargic and she was having like, you know, like a heaviness in her chest. I mean it was immediate.

The anesthesiologist is called back to check on the epidural line.

Chris LeMoult: He comes in and he looks at her and he does a pinprick test and she couldn’t feel anything from her neck down.  I mean, he was pricking her in the collar bone area she couldn’t feel anything.

At 10:30 a.m., because too much of Julie’s body is affected by the epidural, the anesthesiologist stops the flow of drugs.

Lea Thompson, Dateline Correspondent: Was he concerned?

Chris LeMoult: He didn’t seem concerned. He made a comment like ‘We’ll just remove it and wait ‘til it wears off.  And, you know, we’ll put it back in.” 

After the effects of the first epidural wear off, the anesthesiologist tries again. It’s 12:20, he gives Julie a new epidural. But while the first epidural seems to overmedicate her, the second epidural doesn’t seem to be working at all.

Pushing the button on the epidural line is supposed to deliver a dose of pain-relieving drugs, but it doesn’t work.

The family asks for the anesthesiologist to come back again. Julie is in pain, but she has to wait.

Donna Ellis, Julie's mother: They were extremely busy. The anesthesiologist was running from suite to suite.

Julie’s parents, Bruce and Donna Ellis, are there watching this all unfold.

Donna Ellis: He come outside the door of the birthing suite, be on his phone or be out. His pager would go off.  The nurses would be running in constantly.

When the anesthesiologist does return to Julie’s bedside:

Chris LeMoult: At that point, he checks the lines and he asks her to sit up.  And he goes, “Oh, here’s the problem.”  And the line, the catheter from her back and the drip line had been just lying disconnected.  And he just goes, “Okay.”  And he just snaps them together.

Now, the rest of Julie’s family starts to arrive for the big event. As if often the case these days in hospital birthing suites,  there’s almost a party atmosphere.

Thompson: There were a lot of people in that room.

Chris LeMoult: Yeah there were probably eight people in the room. And no one seemed to say it was a problem with that or anything, they just said “Sure, anyone who wants to be.”

It is now mid-afternoon—and this baby is not waiting any longer.

Julie’s delivery goes perfectly
Julie gives birth to a healthy, 9 lbs.4  ounce baby boy: Logan Donnelly LeMoult.

Chris LeMoult: I was looking at Julie and at that moment I had never loved her more or been more proud of her.  And I was happy to have a son. But I was looking at her going, “I’m so amazed that you just did the way you did it and we’re crying and just saying, “I can’t believe this.”

But as afternoon turns to evening, the joy of Logan’s birth begins to be overshadowed by concerns for Julie. She complains to Chris and her mother of a severe headache. Donna Ellis says, when they look for help, they can’t seem to find any.

Donna Ellis: For the five or six hours I was there after, while she was in this unit, the nurse never came back.

It’s now after 10 p.m., the hospital turns quiet, and Chris and Julie have a few minutes alone with their new baby boy. When Logan goes back to the nursery, Julie and Chris try to get some sleep. But at about 11:30 p.m…

Chris LeMoult:  I hear this, “Chris, Chris.  Wake up.  Wake up.” And I wake up and Julie is saying, “You know, my eyes feel like they’re kind of swelling.  My headache’s getting really worse.” I had never seen Julie this nervous about a headache.

Chris runs out to the nurses’ station, and finds help. Julie is given Percocet, a powerful painkiller. But 45 minutes later, she’s in even more pain.

Chris LeMoult: The euphoria of having a child is gone. And we are really nervous about what’s going on with Julie right now.  At this point I just thinking here “I’m alone with her in this hospital, and what’s going on here? We’re not getting attention. So I run down there and I said, ‘You need to get a doctor in here immediately.’”

It’s now 12:40 in the morning, Chris says a doctor gives Julie Benadryl, tells her to calm down, then leaves.

Chris LeMoult: And I look at the fear in her eyes and hear in her voice and it’s getting worse. I mean she has a fever that was escalating through the night.

Thompson: So a call was put out to the obstetrician.

Chris LeMoult:  Yes.

Thompson: Did he come in to the hospital?

Chris LeMoult: No, not at that time, no.

The obstetrician doesn’t come in, but orders the hospital staff to give Julie an antibiotic. A rising fever can be a sign of infection, and an antibiotic might stop it.

Chris LeMoult: The fever started getting really bad. I mean, I was scared.

Julie is put on fluids to try to bring the fever down, but then, at about 2 a.m., Chris says, the woman he loves starts crying out in pain.

Chris LeMoult: My mouth was in her ear and I’m just trying to calm her down and just saying, “So I’m here—I’m here Julie, I’m here.  You know, I’m not going anywhere.” And I heard her say things like, “I don’t want to die.  I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.” And she just started having what looked like kind of like a seizure.  She started trying to rip the IV’s out of her arms.

Suddenly now, the room fills with doctors and nurses.

Chris LeMoult: I’ve never been so scared and so helpless in my entire life.

It’s 2:40 a.m., and Julie is rushed to intensive care.

Chris LeMoult: I just started crying. I’m thinking, "What just happened? What just happened?"

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