Dear Friends & Neighbors,

(Please click on red links & note magenta)

  At the  request of some of our readers, I am devoting this post to the printable pamphlet for Lindsay Clancy case as well as recommendations: Please click on Lindsay-Clancy-Thyroid-Pamphlet

• A Concise, Sourced Timeline of Lindsay Clancy’s Treatment
• What Testing Was – and Was Not – Documented
• What Thyroid Dysfunction Can Look Like
• Thyroid Disease, Depression, and the Postpartum Period
• What Professional Guidelines Recommend
• Other Potentially Relevant Evaluations
• What the Trial Evidence Does Not Establish
• Questions Patients and Families Can Ask Healthcare Providers
• Conclusions and Recommendations
• Endnotes/References
• Further Viewing
• About the Author and Windermere Sun

I would like to emphasize the Conclusions and Recommendations & Questions Patients and Families Can Ask Healthcare Providers, below:

Conclusions and Recommendations

The public record of Lindsay Clancy’s care supports a specific, narrow, and important concern: her outpatient psychiatric providers do not appear to have personally ordered thyroid or other basic blood testing during months of worsening symptoms, and her inpatient admission did not repeat it either — even though a widely cited professional guideline recommends exactly that kind of screening for anyone with postpartum depression.

At the same time, the evidence does not show that a missed test caused this tragedy, and it does show that one thyroid test — in November 2022 — came back normal. The fair conclusion is about the process of her care, not a proven cause of the outcome.

Recommendations

• Clinicians treating postpartum depression or anxiety should consider baseline thyroid, CBC, B12, folate, and iron-related testing as part of a thorough initial evaluation, consistent with existing professional guidance.
• When care is split across multiple providers (as it often is), some mechanism for sharing recent lab results across that team may reduce the chance that basic screening is simply never ordered by anyone.
• Patients and families should feel free to ask, directly and without embarrassment, whether this kind of testing has been done or considered.
• None of this should discourage anyone from seeking or continuing psychiatric treatment, including medication, when it is needed — the goal is a more complete picture, not a substitute for mental health care.

Is it possible that earlier or repeated testing of thyroid function, vitamins, and minerals could have changed the course of this case? I do not know, and I am not a physician or a party to this case — only a researcher and gatherer of public information. What I can say is that a respected professional guideline already recommends this screening for exactly this situation, and that recommendation deserves wider attention.

My hope is that by raising this question publicly, we can help protect other mothers and children going forward.

Questions Patients and Families Can Ask Healthcare Providers

These questions are offered as conversation starters — not as a checklist that overrides a clinician’s judgment about what is appropriate for a particular patient.

• Has my thyroid (TSH, and free T4 if needed) been checked since my delivery, or since my symptoms began?
• Given that I have new or worsening depression or anxiety, would baseline blood work — thyroid, CBC, B12, folate, and iron studies — be reasonable before or alongside starting a new medication?
• If I’ve already been tested, how recent was that result, and could my condition have changed since then?
• Are there physical symptoms I’m having (cold intolerance, fatigue, hair or skin changes, constipation) that could point toward a medical cause rather than — or in addition to — a purely psychiatric one?
• If I am being cared for by several different providers, is anyone coordinating my overall test results and medication history?
• What is the plan if my symptoms get worse quickly, especially overnight or over a weekend?
• Who should I or my family call if I feel unsafe, and what does that process actually look like?

Again, for the printable pamphlet for Lindsay Clancy case as well as recommendations: Please click on Lindsay-Clancy-Thyroid-Pamphlet

 Gathered, written, and posted by Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker   More about the community at www.WindermereSun.com

Any comments, suggestions, concerns regarding this post will be welcomed at info.WindermereSun@gmail.com

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