It allegedly took four days and three different hospitals in Florida before doctors were able to safely remove an epidural catheter that reportedly was stuck in an 18-year-old new mother’s back.
Selena Gray has finally been released from the hospital and reunited with her newborn baby at home, but she is not out of the woods yet, according to family members.
It all started when Gray went into labor and allegedly received an epidural at Sacred Heart Hospital on June 25. She gave birth to baby Serenity the next day, but in the early hours of June 28, Gray told her Facebook followers that doctors “cannot get the epidural out of my back.”
“The doctors have been pulling on the epidural for a whole day but couldn’t get the epidural out of my back! They have no prognosis at this moment so I have been transported to Baptist and they refuse to touch me!”
Sacred Heart Hospital Pensacola declined to comment to Fox 19 and did not immediately respond to a request from FoxNews.com.
A spokesperson allegedly told Yahoo Lifestyle that they cannot provide a statement due to patient privacy laws.
“Epidural anesthesia is the most popular method of pain relief during labor,” according to the American Pregnancy Foundation.
More than 50 percent of women giving birth at hospitals choose to have an epidural, which blocks pain in a particular region of the body.
It is administered through a small tube or catheter into a space made with a needle in the lower back. Risks involved with this procedure include drops in blood pressure, or in extremely rare cases, a leakage of spinal fluid. Other rare complications have resulted in permanent nerve damage.
But in Gray’s case, she claimed in an interview that the epidural “looped itself into my spine” and that staff could not remove the catheter.
She claims she was transferred from Baptist Health Care to UF Health Shands Hospital, where doctors safely removed it, but days later she was still unable to stand or walk without assistance.
“UPDATE ON Selena Gray Please Share,” Patricia Alvarado wrote on June 30.
“Selena came home yesterday and currently could not walk without a walker. She can’t stand up and hold Serenity at the same time. This morning which is Day 6 is a completely different story. She is in such agonizing pain and couldn’t use the walker to get up, she had to be lifted up off the couch and is crying in pain…. #prayforselena.
“She is not doing to (sic) good and she is very scared and upset she can’t barely walk and she is in agonizing pain. She is also very upset she can’t just get up and pick up Serenity. Someone has to bring Serenity to her.”
As of Wednesday, there hadn’t been a further update on Gray’s condition.