Elizabeth Martin, CHSC RN serving at Hospital Loma de Luz in Balfate, Honduras shares a recent struggle to keep a premature baby alive...
Ya know that song by the Beatles "I've got a feeling, a feeling deep inside, Oh yeah..."
Anyway ... that's the song that popped into my head this morning as I was walking to the hospital pharmacy and saw what was unfolding outside the front door. An obviously pregnant woman was being wrestled from a car into a wheelchair as she was flailing and screaming. I had a feeling, a bad feeling, about this one. It wasn't the fact that she was screaming and flailing (lots of women do), it was a weird feeling deep in my gut that something was very wrong. The guy in the emergency room was going to have to wait.
After helping her into the labor bed, I found that she had a sudden onset of severe abdominal pain an hour ago and that her due date wasn't until sometime in January (she didn't know the date). So this baby was anywhere from 4 to 9 weeks premature. It wasn't til I hooked her up to the fetal monitor that I discovered the real problem. The heart rate the monitor was picking up wasn't the mom's like I thought, but the baby's. Instead of beating at the the normal rate of 120 to 160 beats a minute, this baby's heart rate was only in the 60's. This baby was dying.
My hands were shaking so hard that I could barely push the talk button on my ham radio. "CQ Balfate, On-call doctor to Parto NOW!" I yelled. Seconds later, Dr Michael came running into the room with Dr Roy right behind him. "The only thing I know about this lady is that her due date is sometime in January and the baby is bradycardic!" I exclaimed as I was setting up to put an IV in the mom. The docs sprang into action and determined that the placenta which supplies the baby with oxygen and nutrients while in the womb was separating from the uterus. The baby was not getting oxygen.
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| Baby "Z" |
We whisked mom off to the operating room, gave her some conscious sedation, and had that baby out in about 3 minutes flat. The docs handed a tiny, lifeless baby "Z" to me and I quickly carried his little body out the door of the OR to the newborn warmer where our team of docs was already waiting to resuscitate him. It was only a matter of minutes before he was breathing on his own with the help of our makeshift bubble CPAP and was pinking up quickly. He even gave a few weak wails when we disturbed him. He wasn't out of the woods yet but was doing awesome!
So thankful for the incredibly amazing group of missionary doctors and nurses that God has brought down here. Strong work guys!
It is amazing how God worked in this situation to have everyone in the right place at the right time. The fact that only anesthesia provider who is here right now, Dr Isaac, had not yet left for his weekly trip into town. The fact that it happened on a Wednesday when all of our OB doctors are scheduled to work in clinic. The fact that the problem was identified so quickly. God is good!
Update: I've had a hard time coming back to publish this blog as my heart is breaking. Baby "Z" died two days after delivery. He was doing amazing and then his premature lungs gave up. We attempted to resuscitate him, never getting his little heart beating again.
Pray for his family and for those of us involved in his care. It is hard on everyone to lose a baby. Pray for us that we can support each as we all deal with his death in different ways. We love these babies as if they were are own.
