I'm not sure why you and your colleagues haven't seen it. I don't think it has anything to do with the drug cocktail--although it might conceivably have to do with how heavy or light the epidural is. One theory about the fever is the epidural disrupts the autonomic nervous system as well as sensation to the lower half of the body, and the autonomic system controls things like sweating to regulate temperature. At any rate, the likelihood of fever goes up with time, so maybe you and your colleagues haven't been seeing enough women who have had an epidural in place for long enough. Speaking of which, given the fairly short time on the epidural before the fever showed up, it sounds like your client did not have an epidural-related fever but an infection.

-- Henci