This sounds like a TERRIBLE episode of candid camera! Like you expect the OB to come back in ten seconds later with “Just kidding! Everything’s fine!” Yeah, except the massive trauma to the Mom just now…

Some doctors do that because they honestly don’t remember that the average person doesn’t know five thousand medical terms and their associated outcomes.

Some doctors do that because they really aren’t people-people; they went into medicine for the tech and the lifesaving aspects and like being heroes, and when they have to deliver bad news, the skill set isn’t there.

And some few doctors love to have people groveling for information because it gives them a sense of power.

I hope this doctor was just leaving the room to grab a textbook where he’d show the parents pictures, diagrams, charts, and all the information they’d need to deal with their baby’s condition.

I think my reaction to this post would be the same as if it actually happened to me (It didn’t & I hope it never does by the way).
“WTF is hydrocephele (someone pls fill me in)? Insert puzzled, confused & dumbfounded expressing here

Okay… Now you, THE DOCTOR, can explain what the heck that means before you go bolting from the room. You don’t just go pull obscure medical terms out of your posterior and not go explaining what they mean. Sheesh.

A friend of mine has a daughter with this condition. She was told that *if* her baby survived birth, she would never walk or talk.
They wanted to schedule cesarean (which seems so counter-intuitive!). She said that in her gut she felt a vaginal birth would force the excess fluid out of her baby’s head, and she was right. After the birth, the actual amount of fluid was way less than originally expected. The vaginal birth actually compressed and drained enough fluid to buy her a few hours between birth and surgery. They still had to insert a shunt, but looking at her dd now, you would never know.

I wish doctors were more compassionate about delivering news like this. I am sorry to the OP that s/he was so abrupt and didn’t even have the courtesy to explain what was going on and possibly ease any fears. This story reminds me of when I was in my early 20s and at a yearly physical, the doctor (at a walk in clinic, since I was away at university so I didn’t have a family doctor in the city) said, “You have a lump in your breast.” and walked out of the room. Nothing about if he thought it was benign or something to worry about (like my current family doctor did when I found another one years later, both were nothing to worry about), or what tests he wanted me to have done to find out what it was. It was scary as hell, I can only imagine how much more scary to must have been when the news was about your baby.

I know a couple who had a similar experience when their pediatrician announced that “It’s Downs” and walked out of the room. They were young first-time parents and totally terrified. I think some medical professionals get so used to what they see and do every day that they forget what a life-changing moment it is for other people. It’s important for all of us to remember what if feels like to be on the other end of the diagnosis.

I wonder if part of it has to do with the fact that the doctor doesn’t really want to deal with the counseling or emotional aspect of these diagnosis. A lot of doctors go to med school because they were good at science, enjoy the pathology, but had no interest in the emotional or psychological side of it, so when it comes up they try to get it over with as quickly as possible.

An analogy might be me — I went to law school and became a lawyer because I enjoyed reading and was interested in the analytical side of the law, but I have no interest in going to court (which most people assume is what all lawyers do, just like they assume all doctors “care about their feelings”).