Paging Dr Stork

This story was too good not to pass on. My sister works as a respiratory therapist at a hospital with no maternity unit (Ellis). A couple showed up to the ER in full on labor not able to get to the sister hospital with a maternity unit that was so close (Bellevue), but too far. Here is the story in her words:

Yup, you heard it right--a baby in the ER. It was a Bellevue patient in labor on her way to the hospital in the family car, 4 previous children--this is #5, and she suddenly started pushing in the car so they bailed and stopped at our ER even though so close to Bellevue. It ended up taking an hour to get the baby out but there was no way to know that any next contraction could have that little baby #5 shooting out like a rocket so there was no transferring her at that point. They called the emergency code "paging Dr Stork to the ER stat!..." (subtle--I'm sure no one figured out what that meant!) Ellis hasn't had a baby born there in years so everyone was scrambling to find things long unused or never used while keeping family reassured that all was well and that they were in good hands (who had never done this before...oh, didn't tell them that part...) All us resp folk were together at the time they called the overhead emergency and we suddenly realized that nobody in the ER is certified to handle the newborns--that is one of our certifications--YIKES! I look at the night crew--two guys, a 23 yr old girl who has never seen a birth, and me. (guess who drew the team leader straw on this one!) So we scrambled to get prepared--the guys ran to other buildings and other floors to gather things we needed and Nichole and I prepared to receive the baby. At the last minute, we had two labor nurses who had been summoned from Bellevue arrive to help with the big moment, one of our residents got to deliver his first baby, and he then turned and handed her to us!! We didn't have a scale to weigh her on but I will guess her at about 5 lbs--she was a teeny little thing although 38 weeks. It was then up to us (me and wide-eyed awestruck Nichole) to make sure baby was breathing, stimulated, responsive, suctioned, heart rate, oxygen, APGAR scored, cleaned, dried, wrapped like a tiny burrito and given to Mom. All went as if it were perfectly orchestrated for which I was very grateful. My neonatal certification also includes rescusitation and intubation for a birth with complications or a baby who is nonresponsive, and I was calmly (full panic) reviewing all the procedures in my head while waiting just in case I needed that knowledge fresh. I was very tempted to grab Nicholes I-phone and google the intubation procedures but didn't want the family to catch me boning up in the delivery room corner (pay no attention to the person behind the curtain frantically studying intubation and newborn procedures...move along...nothing to see here....!) Meanwhile in the other corner of the room, Dad is hovering 3 inches inside the door with a faint green tinge to his complexion. He quickly declined an invitation to the front row with Gramma and cousin, and subsequently had a tech assigned to him to watch for "Man Down Syndrome" as nobody else in the room would have noticed if he fainted! So Baby Anna made her way into this world at 4:35am to a loud round of cheers and applause, followed by the ER staff singing Happy Birthday! Everyone was then packed up and shipped to Bellevue for nursery and OB followup. We were all kind of giddy after that, racing around the hospital trying to catch up on normal responsibilities whih had been allowed to lapse for two hours. I had one of the intensive care units that night and for two straight hours not one person had needed me, no pages, no emergencies, no medications due--a situation which is unheard of but I was so grateful for no conflicts on my time.

This is the reason I love my job--the spontaneity, the unexpectedness which keeps it always new and interesting and never boring, and the opportunity to truly make a difference in people's lives. So hence, my story of Baby Anna and how she brought joy, excitement and life into a place which so often experiences exactly the opposite.