UPMC Lititz — Local services in Warwick Township

I can't let this situation go even after all this time. I gave birth to my first child at this hospital in 2023. I initially chose this location because I attended all my pregnancy appointments at the OBGYN across the street. I wish I hadn't.

The first issue arose after I gave birth. Until then, everything had been excellent.

At some point, I needed more pads, cooling packs, and adult diapers after my vaginal birth. My partner went to the desk outside of our room to ask because I could hardly walk.

He was immediately met with annoyance from a staff member. She loudly told another worker, “The guy is back again.” He had to ask multiple times as I hadn't received anything for hours, which is why he was “back again!”

The worst happened a day after the delivery at 5 AM.

My baby was screaming, and a nurse came in to check if everything was okay. My partner and I had agreed to take turns sleeping, and it was his turn. As a first-time mom, I was anxious and exhausted, and the nurse noticed that. She kindly offered to take the baby for a few hours so I could get some rest. Initially, I was hesitant as I didn't want my baby out of my sight, but the nurse reassured me that he would be given formula at feeding time and that they would take good care of him. So, I agreed to let her take him. I fell asleep, and a few hours later, my partner woke me up with the baby to let me know that everything was okay, that the baby was still sleeping and to continue to rest.

I woke up shortly after with a nurse in the room. She had two sleeve tattoos. I believe her name may have been Christina. It was feeding time, and I attempted to breastfeed him. He wouldn't latch and started to cry oddly. She then said that my baby appeared to be stressed and extremely hungry. She then lectured me that it wasn’t about me anymore and that I should’ve been up to feed him the first time she came in (I hadn't even known she had come in).

I told her that the nurse on duty before her had said to me while he was out there with them, they were going to feed him before he was given back to us. It was then revealed that nobody had fed him while he was out there, and there must have been some miscommunication. What?!

So he had been out there, crying for food, eventually falling asleep after realizing nobody would respond! This was why when we did wake him up to feed, he gave this “strange” cry!

They didn't come in to tell us this, to tell me anything. When my partner received him (9 AM), nothing was communicated, and when he woke me up the first time, I let him know they had fed him…or so I thought.

I was distraught. The nurse had promised me that my baby would be fed formula while he was under their care. I relied on this assurance and would not have allowed him to go if they hadn't promised me this.

Now, not only am I being blamed for my baby being hungry and stressed after being assured that he would be fed while we could get some sleep, but I’m also told “it’s not about me anymore” and that I should’ve been up to feed him as if I knew he hadn’t been fed! It was a big mistake on my part that I still regret and feel bad for until this day! DO NOT let them take your baby away for you to “get some sleep”—SPEAK UP, unlike me when a nurse chastises you like a child without knowing anything of what’s going on.

SPEAK UP if you are being treated like a nuisance for asking for more items in a hospital after JUST giving birth! Was I supposed to conjure up the pads and adult diapers myself? How my partner, my baby, and I were treated postpartum was horrendous, and I genuinely hope no one has experienced the same treatment as I did.

Please consider another hospital for your delivery, especially if you're a first-time mom. If you do, make sure you have support on standby. You should not have to advocate for yourself in a hospital to receive the correct care or treatment. You should not be met with derision when asking for postpartum items to heal properly.

It shouldn't have been...

I want to start by saying the hospital itself it’s horrible. I’ve had an outpatient procedure there that went great. My family has gotten lab work, ultrasounds, MRIs, CT scans, x rays, and mammograms that have been pleasant experiences. However the ER is horrific. At 3am this Tuesday Morning I arrived to the ER with severe shaking, fever, chills, disorientation, vomiting, weakness, dizziness, and knew that I had a UTI. We explained that I had finished a full round of antibiotics and Monday ( 3 days after finishing first round) evening got more from urgent care due to still testing positive for UTI. I received IV fluids and antibiotics. They did urine sample and took blood work. Blood work showed I was in bad shake given lactic acid and white blood count and some other component that indicates a rather severe infection. They did a CT scan and my kidneys were infected. They knew I had two autoimmune issues ( celiac and lupus) and also had been fighting this for some time now. I was sent home. Two hours later I was all but having convulsions, vomiting more intensely, so weak I couldn’t sit up let alone walk. My body hurt like it had never hurt before. Entire body- excruciating pain. I couldn’t form words and was extremely disoriented. My husband carried me to the wheel chair inside the door. He went to desk and explained that we were just discharged 2 hours ago and I was worse now than before. I was actively crying, vomiting, trying to say I was dizzy and shaking so hard it looked like a seizure. At one point I nodded out. Two woman come in ( after me) and get called back…. Walking freely and laughing with one another. The woman even said, “ Gosh please take her first she’s in bad shape.” They declined. My husband looks over at the desk and asked what was happening! He was told it wasn’t first come first serve but by acute need. To that he gestured to me. We waited about 25 Minutes. Instead of taking me right back they tried to triage me.. again. As if blind to my physical state and my physical inability to answer. My husband tells them AGAIN the we were just discharged two hours prior ( no, this was not during shift changed ) and all the info should be there. They tried to proceed as usual like robots and state they need to start from the beginning. Then I passed out, again. I was then taken to an er room. They also acted as if they had never seen me and it some of the same staff! Two hours. Two hours had passed and it was not busy. They needed extra staff bc I was shaking so bad they couldn’t get the iV. They take blood and urine. They gave me fluids. Two hours later they come to tell us they are just waiting for the CT orders. Really?! You didn’t see that I ALREADY HAD ONE AND I HAVE A KIDNEY INFECTION!!! Unbelievable. My blood pressure was 100/57. My heart rate sky high, my breathing rapid and shallow. Still vomiting, kept saying ‘I’m so dizzy and my entire body hurts so bad”. After my husband was texting with some personal friends who are physicians they said it sounded like sepsis and they need to test for that immediately. So we asked if the tests they are running included sepsis. Nope. They did not. They were literally discussing discharge! We demanded they test for it. An infectious disease dr comes in within minutes to inform us that I have severe sepsis and at risk for shock. I needed to be admitted immediately. The care I received on the second floor was great. Now that I finally have some strength I feel compelled to warn others of this ER. First of all I shouldn’t have been discharged. When I returned in much worse shape they should have absolutely handled it differently. Their blatant disregard for reading the cart was unreal. They couldn’t see I had a CT scan just hours ago?! It didn’t dawn on them to test for sepsis? I literally could have died. Please do not...

My husband went to the ER 6/29/23 with left lower chest/ left upper abdominal pain and pain with taking a deep breath and he was misdiagnosed as having a muscle strain when he actually had a pulmonary embolism. The doctor thought she saw left lower lobe pneumonia on the chest x-ray so she ordered a CT scan without contrast which she said also indicated the possible start of pneumonia but because he didn't have any other symptoms of pneumonia, the doctor sent him home with prescription strength naproxen and a paper about "pleuritic chest pain." When my husband developed pain on the right side of his chest the next day, he went to Penn Medicine urgent care and they ordered a d-dimer blood test to screen for a blood clot. The d-dimer was elevated so my husband was sent to Penn Medicine LGH ER and had a CT scan with contrast which showed bilateral pulmonary embolisms, in the same places where he was having his pain. The doctor there said the area that had looked like pneumonia on the left was actually an area of infarct where the lung tissue had lost blood flow because of the clot and the lung tissue was "dying", which was probably contributing to the pain. Thankfully Penn Medicine put him on the needed blood thinners. We notified UPMC Lititz that they misdiagnosed him and that we were not happy about two emergency room/hospital bills plus an urgent care bill since this could possibly have been avoided if they had diagnosed him correctly. They investigated and sent us a letter denying making any mistakes and said we are still responsible for the bills. They said that a CT scan might not have shown the blood clot. But Penn Medicine had no problem seeing the blood clots on the CT scan since they used contrast. It is scary that UPMC took no responsibility and made no offer to plan to make a change to their future ER chest pain protocol, so they might miss other people with blood clots in their lungs. This misdiagnosis probably could have easily been avoided if UPMC had done a d-dimer with the other labs they drew when he said he had chest pain with taking a deep breath or if they had done the CT scan with contrast. We understand that mistakes happen, but we were hoping that UPMC would take some responsibility for their mistake and assure us that proper measures would be put in place so that this doesn't happen to others. We went to UPMC initially because it was close to our house and convenient, but do not plan to go back to UPMC and want to warn others to avoid this place- don't waste your time and money or risk your health as a blood clot in the lung could be a potentially serious or...