Jacqueline Timmermans (36) became pregnant for the first time in 2017. A difficult period with a lot of uncertainty followed. “During the pregnancy I always suffered from bleeding. In the hospital they could not discover exactly what caused this. In the end, a low-lying placenta turned out to be the cause. An anxious time, in which I felt a lot of unrest.”
In the end – with no apparent cause of the bleeding – her first child was born healthy after 37 weeks. More than a year later she became pregnant with her second child, after which she was regularly found in the hospital again. “I also had bleeding during the second delivery. It soon turned out to be my placenta again this time. I had ‘placenta previa’: then your placenta, also called placenta, is at the bottom of your uterus. vessels, which can burst and cause bleeding.”
Two healthy boys
With placenta previa there is a chance that your baby will be born prematurely. A normal delivery is not possible because the ‘exit’ is blocked. “The doctors tried to extend my pregnancy to 35 weeks. They finally succeeded: my second son was born healthy at 35.5 weeks. We are now blessed with two healthy sons and we are more than crazy about them. Our family is complete.”
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During her second pregnancy, Timmemans had a lot of support from talking to specialists in her area. “Until I became pregnant for the second time, I trained to become an ENT doctor, so I have some medical specialists in my network. A gynecologist outside my own hospital wanted to help me with my questions and uncertainty. For example, we discussed the guidelines that apply to placenta previa and what questions I could ask in the doctor’s office. I discussed with a pediatrician what I could expect if my baby was born prematurely.”
Jacqueline had already received the necessary information in the hospital, but she still felt the need to be able to tell her story outside the consultation room. “In the hospital you are always a bit tense. You do not know what is coming and you may receive bad news. In addition, you are often told what the plans are for the continuation of your trajectory, so you know in advance not really what you can ask for.”
Little time during appointment
And even if she could think of specific questions in advance, Timmermans did not always find it easy to remember the answers she received. “You often come home with a head full of information. After you have let it sink in, things can suddenly come to mind that were not there in the doctor’s office. Also, the time is often limited during such an appointment, so you can never really go in depth.”
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Talking to a gynecologist outside of office hours gave Jacqueline the opportunity to ask the questions she didn’t already have in the doctor’s office—and to discuss the answers she got at the hospital afterwards. “I occasionally spoke to this medical specialist on the phone and that was very nice, also because he was completely outside of it. It gave me peace of mind.”
Not everyone has a medical network
Timmermans thinks that consulting with a specialist outside your own trajectory can be very valuable in making decisions, or in making things easier to process. “It makes you feel more free in what you want to ask. It can also reassure you and give you extra insight to make an informed medical decision.” She also realizes that not everyone has a network like hers. In order to let others experience what she experienced then, she put Hikos on: an online platform for quick and personal advice about your healthcare question.
“At Hikos you get the opportunity to consult a specialist and to discuss your care question. You can choose someone yourself, who will then receive the available medical data about you. After that you can discuss, for example, whether or not to let going through an operation, or can you elaborate on the advantages and disadvantages of making medical choices, but above all: what is important to you as a patient, what your wishes and preferences are.”
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There are currently ten different medical specialties available on Hikos, with two more coming soon. Jacqueline would prefer to implement this extra speaking option at hospitals, but that is (still) complicated. “There doesn’t seem to be time to add extra speaking time, unfortunately. During my training as an ENT doctor I got 10 minutes for an appointment with a patient. That is very little. In some specialties it is a bit more, but hours You can’t take it anywhere. Then the entire hospital care has to be organized differently.”
To operate or not to operate?
The platform has been in use for a year – and that has led to a lot of positive reactions so far. “People consult Hikos for various reasons, especially when making a medical choice. One of the Hikos patients was a woman who did not know whether or not to have an operation. She needed a conversation that went into more detail. the pros and cons, and where her own situation was discussed. She got that through Hikos.”
“The woman let it be known that she was pleased that she could now brainstorm from her own home with someone who knows the business and who can explain in great detail the pros and cons of operating or not. In the end, she could make a choice making what she herself fully supported,” says Timmermans.
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In addition to people who want more information about the pros and cons of a medical procedure, Hikos also sees patients who are a bit ‘lost’. “It is no longer about deciding whether or not to do something together with the specialist, but these people are searching for their diagnosis or treatment. People who have completed a process in, for example, the hospital, but where there still seems to be no solution. A medical specialist at Hikos can then guide these people to explain what the options are – and can set up a step-by-step plan.”
“Even if there is no concrete solution to the medical problem, such a plan can take away a lot of concerns. People like to be heard and through extra advice, talking and more depth, you still get a little further in the hope to perhaps find improvement. By discussing different options, you can guide someone through all the possibilities that healthcare has to offer. This helps the patient to better accept his or her situation and possibly also close it.”
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