She was ours for the moment...

Our baby

It was a Friday and I had been busy catching up on some things that I was behind on at home. I felt like I had worked all day and now I found myself behind the wheel heading in to work the night shift in the ER. I wore a smile all of the way to work when I worked in that ER. My previous job had gotten so tedious and I  had become miserable and sometimes I found myself wanting to cry when I drove in to that job. So the ER was a wonderful workplace to me, odd as that may sound. I felt like I could make a difference in people's lives at the hospital. Just being there for them in their time of pain and discomfort helped me.

Most of my favorite crew was on duty that night, so that made the promise of a great night even greater. Coffee in hand, I headed to clock in and get report from the person I was relieving. It was busy already, with almost no beds open, so the throngs of people in the waiting room was growing like a big balloon about to burst. I always work better under stress, so I was ready.

We had several people who were being admitted but we were awaiting the call to allow us to move them up to their assigned rooms. This backup was a common occurrence and I felt sure the people in power were unaware of the ramifications to the ER when people are waiting long periods of time to be moved out and up to their rooms. It ties up the bed and keeps us from bringing people back to be seen who really need to come back and be examined and treated. It was like a horrific traffic jam that I saw oh so often and was powerless to fix.

Like any logjam, it cleared itself and we began to bring people back with all manner of problems. People are so diverse in their ways of reacting to delays and pain. More often than not they react poorly, but many are humble and kind no matter what, I just love them all. Sometimes it is a personal challenge to cheer up a patient and or their family, but most of us were skilled at that.

We had a sweet elderly lady who had slipped on some grease her husband had spilled on the kitchen floor earlier and forgot to clean up. As it turned out, the husband had dementia and had become very forgetful. The wife walked in not knowing about the spill and she said she was in a big hurry, so was walking faster than normal. Suddenly her feet flew into the air and down she fell, hitting her head on the way to the floor. She had a huge knot and bloody spot on her forehead, a sore wrist and her knee was hurting her as well. Soon she was assessed and sent off to the Radiology department for several xrays and a CT scan of her head. The fact that she was on Coumadin (a blood thinner) was of special concern. This was a very sweet family, the patient, her husband and her daughter were there in that tiny room.

I looked up as I walked passed that room and saw an ambulance arriving with a male patient. He was a very big man, very muscular, with a huge beard of salt and pepper gray. He was also very intoxicated and had called 911 because he had shot his toe while cleaning his gun. This accidental shooting had sobered him up with pain but he was still in an angry mood. I guess if anyone shot their toe it would put them in a foul mood. The orthopedic surgeon was called immediately and he was being attended by several nurses at this point. 

Then it happened, it was the one and only time it happened on my shift, the whole time I worked at Springhill Hospital. We were the only hospital in the city that had a special program that had been broadly advertised for young mothers who had unwanted births. Anyone who gave birth and did not want the baby could come into our hospital, explain that they wanted to give up the baby and hand it to any employee, no questions would be asked of them. This way they would know the baby was in good hands and that it would be adopted by someone who wanted a baby. I thought it was a great program because it had the potential to save the lives of many babies. Across the country there had been several widely broadcast, cases  where young girls would give birth and put the baby in trash cans. To know that they could hand the baby over to a healthcare worker, without questions, was a wonderful alternative for the mother and for the baby. Nationwide, hospitals had created this "don't ask" policy and our hospital was the one in Mobile that joined that program.

Well one of our male nurses was walking down the hallway coming back from the cafeteria when a young lady walked up with a bundled blanket and inside was a very small infant, it was still unclean from its birth. Blood and mucus was stuck to this little baby girl as she lay there naked in that blanket...the young mother handed her baby to him and said she was giving up her baby and heard about our program, then she walked right out the door.

He was shocked. We thought he was playing a joke on us when he first walked through the ER doors with that baby. Everyone of us that gathered around her felt so much love for this poor infant starting off her life with a mother who could not or would not keep her. The ER physician came out immediately and examined the baby, he called up to the nursery upstairs and the nurses came down to get her about 15 minutes later. None of us wanted to let her go. I know that baby had to feel love because we all poured our love out to her for those precious moments she was with us. I thought of her many times and hoped that her life turned out happy. 

As that shift wound down and I was thinking of the hoard of people we had seen come through our doors, that baby was the star of my shift. The little lady who fell turned out not to have any serious injuries but was kept over night as a precaution. The man with the shot  toe, went to surgery and returned without his left big toe. They were unable to save any of it, so he couldn’t wear flip flops anymore but should recover otherwise.

My crew was weary, yet happy to see the clock on the wall that told us the shift was over. I did love my job but it could be exhausting at times, in a good way. I clocked out, and then I was again behind the wheel, thinking about that precious baby girl as I headed home to my family.