We had a tough one come in earlier today and as a result I am still shaking as I think about it.
A woman, obviously ready to deliver, was brought to our ER department via ambulance; you could hear her screams of agony throughout the emergency area. She was screaming in pain. It alarmed us to see her in so much distress.
As soon as the woman was safely placed onto the table, we went to work. The obstetrician on duty positioned himself between her legs, ready to catch the baby when it came out; IVs and other lines were affixed to her, as were ECG leads, so we could monitor her condition, and an oxygen mask was placed onto her face, over her mouth and nose.
The woman's vital signs were not good: her BP was exceedingly high (reading was 249/159; she was on the verge of a stroke), her heart rate was well over 200 beats per minute (probably because of the stress she was under in trying to deliver the baby), and her breathing was gasping and labored. The baby's vital signs were no better; we knew we had to get the infant out of there before it was too late for either the baby or its mother.
What made the situation even more dire was the fact that the baby was in an abnormal position, making traditional delivery difficult. A C-section would probably have to be performed, in order to deliver the unborn infant safely ... and without causing further damage to the woman's already precarious condition ... or to the baby.
Within moments, the ER room the woman was in was turned into a makeshift OR; the woman was soon prepped for surgery and her husband, who had been by his wife's side, was ordered to leave until after the baby was safely delivered. It seemed that the baby was a big one: it was too large to pass through the woman's birth canal. The woman in question was maybe five feet tall and weighed maybe 90 pounds. There was no way on God's green earth she could deliver her child without having something horrible happening to her ... or the baby.
Not even fifteen minutes later, the baby was safely delivered, but the baby was blue and not breathing. The baby was immediately taken to a resuscitation table and intubated, where a doctor was soon breathing for the child by squeezing the bag attached to the breathing tube. The mother was being tended to as well: the surgeon on call who performed the C-section was quickly stitching her back up. Afterwards the woman would probably be taken to the ICU; she was in very bad shape. She had lost an awful lot of blood; blood was everywhere: on the floor, on the table, even on the walls. It looked as if some animal had been slaughtered in the treatment room.
If the woman was to survive, it would be a miracle. Same way with her newborn baby boy, who weighed a whopping 12 pounds at birth.
The next order of business was to notify the woman's husband about what had happened to his wife, and also the birth of his new son. It wouldn't be easy, but the husband had a right to know what was going on with his wife ... and why things happened the way they did.
~To be continued.~
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