Never would I have imagined….WARNING….this blog is somewhat a journal of my experiences & while I have not put “everything” in it & have scribbled some notes of things & experiences I will write about later elsewhere for myself this is the easiest way & place for me to “journal” & I need to do this now…what I will write here was VERY SAD SO PLEASE JUST SKIP OVER IT IF YOU LIKE & I DID NOT POST IT ON FACEBOOK as an update.
I was ending what I thought was a very “normal” Thursday…I had written the earlier post for today about 5 pm when we had a 20 min lull & now it was 8:30 I am outting that post ahead of this one). Florence Sr. & I were waiting for our last 2 patients to come out of the OR & John had taken the previous patient to post op. The hospital had “staged” patients for surgery in the hallway all week - usually with no IV, no O2 & no medical person ever anywhere nearby so I noticed a woman on a trolley (gurney) & didn’t think anything of it. Florence went to check on the patients in the OR to see if they were close to being done & I was picking up from a busy day & setting up for tomorrow. When Florence went by the woman she was flailing her arms & not coherent - she called me for help & we wheeled her into our Recovery area put oxygen on her & put her on our monitor she was in pretty significant shock so we called Andreas (our intensivist) he yelled out to the hospital staff “does anyone know what is wrong with this patient” as we started an IV…someone at some point told us she was 36 weeks pregnant & was just brought here from the maternity ward where she had been having seizures (perhaps from Pre-Eclampsia) & was given medicine there (that’s why she was floppy) & now they were going to do an emergency C-Section cause they also thought she had a ruptured uterus??? Obviously “emergency C-Section” is the US is rush them in & get the baby out…here it was wait 30 plus minutes for the doctors to arrive & then start treatment??? We had no way to check on the baby but we gave the mom fluids, Andreas & an Op Smile Anesthesiologist intubated her & then theKenyan doctors came…it was about 10-15 min after we first discovered her….and somewhere in there we lost power & lights for a few minutes.
They wheeled the mom in the OR & Andreas told me & Donna who was there by now to prepare to receive & resuscitate the baby…so we did, got fluids, oxygen, suction, towels, drugs, airway & intubation all set up…about 5 min later they brought in a very limp little girl & also said the cord was around the neck. We immediately tried to resuscitate her according to the best American critical care standards - doing CPR & using all we had set up…we got an IV line in & gave drugs etc etc…we worked on her for about 10 min w/o success. It was so emotionally difficult on so many levels for so many reasons…what would have happened normally in this scenario if we hadn’t intervened? Is this what they always do with their patients? We intervened & still the baby died - if she had any chance we gave her the best one possible, if she was in another country the scene would have played out so differently & I know she would likely have lived. And in the middle of all of this going on our 2 patients came out of the OR & Teresa the plastic surgery resident on the team was so great she walked in & said “Nancy what can I do to help” & I just said recover that patient you just brought me & she said she had no idea what to do but she did great. This really is an amazing team!!!
When we could do nothing more for the baby we wrapped her in a pretty pink blanket (one of the blankets we have been giving each child all week) & the “on duty” Kenyan OR nurse took the baby to “the maternity ward” I didn’t know why they took the baby there & asked Florence & she said that the mother wouldn’t believe her baby had “passed” unless she saw it.
Andreas quickly turned his attention to the mom in the operating room & from his voice I could tell it wasn’t going well…he told me to bring all the IV fluids I had & then asked for a few drugs as well. The situation in there stabilized somewhat & we left with her still in the operating room…we all walked quietly to the bus that had gone to the hotel & then come back for us & was waiting there. I got on the elevator & just couldn’t hold back the tears…I went to Jannaes room cause I just felt like I had to tell or debrief with someone & she was so supportive….never in my mind could I have imagined a situation like this…but we did all we could - I know that for sure…still at the end of a LONG day it was difficult to process…I have so many questions for the Kenyan nurses I will be asking tomorrow
Oh Nancy, what a sad story. I have tears in my eyes. I will be praying for that mother and I hope she recovers well.
ReplyDeleteI think of the long road ahead of her and hope she has loving support after the loss of her sweet baby.
That little angel is in our heavenly Father's arms, safe and warm now.