Season 1, 2, 3 4 and 5 The Originals

Chapter 86

Thursday June 25, 2020, 6:30 PM

In a near panic and almost in tears Leonard said. "What do you mean dangerous and what emergency surgery? Why didn't anyone tell me?"

Another nurse came into the room and said, almost in relief. "Oh good there you are Mr. Hofstadter."

Pam turned back to the monitors.

"It's Doctor Hofstadter." Leonard said automatically.

"Oh, then you know how something like this could happen." The nurse said.

"I'm not that kind of a doctor." Leonard said, raising his voice. "What is something like this and will someone please tell me what is going on?"

Just then Dr. Samuels walked into the room. She looked at Leonard, then spoke softly with the two nurses.

After about thirty seconds, the two nurses left and she took Leonard's arm saying. "Come on."

Before leading him to the couch, sitting down next to him.

"Dr. Samuels, what is going on?" Leonard asked. "And, why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Leonard, Penny had a hemorrhagic shock episode, because of her heavy bleeding from her uterus." Dr. Samuels said. "The bleeding, I believe, is caused by pieces of her placenta still embedded in the uterus. Do you remember I was doing extra ultrasounds, trying to determine whether or not it was in the uterine wall, but couldn't tell?"

Leonard looked lifeless, and just nodded.

"When the placenta was delivered, I inspected it." Dr. Samuels said. "I didn't see anything really missing, but where the placenta tears off the uterus, the entire placenta is lacerated, and unless there's a big piece, it's not very easy to see if anything was missing off the placenta. I did see the tendrils, but I couldn't tell if there were pieces of the tendrils missing, so I sent the placenta to the physiology department, and let them inspect it. They found some places where pieces were torn off and called me. I was on the way home, so I turned around and came back to the hospital."

Again, Leonard just nodded.

"You know she was bleeding rather heavily, right?" Dr. Samuels asked.

"Yes, they had to change her pad five or six times, I think." Leonard said. "Althea told us each time she changed it that she was bleeding heavily."

Dr. Samuels continued. "Yes, and each time she called me, also. Normally, we give women Oxytocin, which increases the contractions. The contractions continue after birth, to push out the placenta and afterward to shrink the uterus. Shrinking the uterus, usually puts pressure on the torn blood vessels, stopping the bleeding. Like when you put pressure on a cut. We gave Oxytocin to Penny to help stop the bleeding, but with the pieces of the placenta still in the uterus, it couldn't produce enough pressure to stop the bleeding, so it continued."

"Is that what happened with Penny?"

"Yes, we believe it is." Dr. Samuels said. "That's why when the physiology department called and told me, I turned around and started back to the hospital. On my way back, Penny's blood pressure crashed, basically, it fell to a dangerous level because of her blood loss, and the nurses here were able to get her started on a blood transfusion to get her stabilized."

"Then you knew this would happen." Leonard said.

"Not for sure." Dr. Samuels said. "But when I got the call from physiology, I knew there was a possibility."

"Then why didn't you tell me?" Leonard asked. "And, why didn't you take care of it earlier today? And, why didn't you have anyone here to take care of Penny? Why wasn't I told when it happened?"