I keep hearing about miraculous things that happen here. Patients recover who were never expected to, people stay healthy and alive against all odds. It's humbling to work in a setting where what I can do is, in reality, limited. In the U.S. we have more of a sense of control, which may be why death feels like the enemy, because if a patient dies we feel like failures.
This morning, we delivered a dead baby*. She was not actually dead, but her APGARs were 0/1/2 for those of you to whom those numbers mean something. She spent almost her first half an hour of life not breathing on her own. Her arms and legs were floppy as could be for about the first 4 hours. Until this afternoon, I had never heard her cry. Thank God our pediatrician, Judy, was here and present at the delivery. Otherwise, it probably would have been my job to resuscitate the baby and my skills in resuscitation are rusty and limited. When I checked on mom and baby about 9 hours after the delivery the baby was trying to nurse, crying lustily, with normal vital signs and flailing arms and legs. She is very much alive.
We don't know how long she was without oxygen and how much brain damage resulted from that, so we haven't stopped praying for her. She may have a long road ahead of her, but given the miracle that I have witnessed today, I wouldn't be surprised if she defeats all odds.
*For the medically interested: mom came in 2-3 hours after rupture of membranes, and was found to have a cord prolapse with a fetal heart rate that was 120 for a few minutes, then dropped into the 60s. We did a crash C-section.
My friend and colleague, Judy, documents the whole thing with much more flair at http://mdbloomie.blogspot.com/2014/01/milagro-miracle.html
This morning, we delivered a dead baby*. She was not actually dead, but her APGARs were 0/1/2 for those of you to whom those numbers mean something. She spent almost her first half an hour of life not breathing on her own. Her arms and legs were floppy as could be for about the first 4 hours. Until this afternoon, I had never heard her cry. Thank God our pediatrician, Judy, was here and present at the delivery. Otherwise, it probably would have been my job to resuscitate the baby and my skills in resuscitation are rusty and limited. When I checked on mom and baby about 9 hours after the delivery the baby was trying to nurse, crying lustily, with normal vital signs and flailing arms and legs. She is very much alive.
We don't know how long she was without oxygen and how much brain damage resulted from that, so we haven't stopped praying for her. She may have a long road ahead of her, but given the miracle that I have witnessed today, I wouldn't be surprised if she defeats all odds.
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| the miracle |
*For the medically interested: mom came in 2-3 hours after rupture of membranes, and was found to have a cord prolapse with a fetal heart rate that was 120 for a few minutes, then dropped into the 60s. We did a crash C-section.
My friend and colleague, Judy, documents the whole thing with much more flair at http://mdbloomie.blogspot.com/2014/01/milagro-miracle.html
