Moncton woman worries she was affected by inappropriate use of labour-inducing drug

Corbyn Mackenzie remembers the rush at the hospital the day her daughter Aoifa was born last August.

It had already been a complicated pregnancy. She was in the hospital and hooked up to an IV, when her baby's heart rate suddenly dropped.

"They ran tests upon tests to figure out why her heart rate was going down and they couldn't figure it out," she said.

Mothers who gave birth at the Moncton Hospital are anxiously trying to find out whether they were affected by the actions of a nurse now under police investigation.

The nurse was fired for inappropriately administering Oxytocin — a drug used to induce labour.

Baby's survival 'a miracle'

Mackenzie wants to know when she'll get answers.

"If she did play any part in this, I want her to go to jail. I want her to pay the full extent. Because when our child was born, she had a five per cent survival rate," she said.

"It's a miracle she's alive, she's a miracle."

Oxytocin, if administered improperly, can cause a fetal heart rate to drop, and create the need for an emergency caesarean section.

That's how Aoifa was born.

She was three months premature and weighed less than a pound. She spent months in the newborn intensive care unit and has suffered several complications, such as a collapsed lung and a low immune system.

"She's eight months old now and still in newborn clothes and all I can think is, did this nurse do this?"

Now what?

Horizon Health says it believes two women had emergency C-sections as the result of the nurse's actions.

And it's asking other women who may have been affected to come forward.

That's what MacKenzie did.

"All they could tell me was, 'That really sucks but I'm sorry to hear that you had to go through that.'" she said.

They also told her to call the RCMP. Now, she's waiting to hear back.

"That's most upsetting part, waiting for the RCMP to tell you if you were victimized by a nurse that's supposed to take care of you," she said. 

Horizon Health Network says it won't comment further because of the ongoing RCMP investigation.