Nurses rushed into the pod. Sophie could see the mother was
struggling to breathe. Then she went limp and fell to the floor.
Sophie cringed at the sound of her head hitting the floor. Her
eyes rolled back in her head. Her arms jerked up and down, and
her back arched. Sophie watched in horror as the woman had a
full epileptic seizure.
An adult code was called, bringing with it extra confusion.
Sophie wondered how long it had been since these baby spe
cialists had taken care of a seizing adult. The adult code team
from Metro General next door rushed in. They stopped the sei
zure, stabilized the mother, then wheeled her away on a stretcher.
Later, Sophie heard from the NICU nurses that she’d had a
stroke, causing her to seize.
The next day, the father sat by the baby’s incubator, his eyes
red and swollen. Probably from crying, as well as from exhaus
tion, thought Sophie. Her heart went out to the poor man. His
wife was stroked out in the adult ICU, and his baby was here in
the NICU. How could one person survive so much sadness? Why
was life so unfair?
Dr. Wagner entered the NICU. He spoke with Dr. Morrison
while glancing in the direction of Pod B. They walked together
past Pod C on their way to the baby’s bedside. As their con
versation grew more animated, Sophie heard the anger in Dr.
Morrison’s voice. Her hands were on her hips. Dr. Wagner kept
shaking his head. After Dr. Morrison left the pod, Dr. Wagner sat
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THE VERY BEST OF CARE
with the father for several minutes, then stood up to leave. He
gave the father’s shoulder a squeeze, then left.
Sophie pulled out a slip of paper and wrote down the moth
er’s name and the baby’s date of birth. She was starting a file. She
planned to gather information on all the babies who were in the
NICU for prematurity. Those delivered by Dr. Wagner would go
in one file and those delivered by other obstetricians in another.
She couldn’t prove anything with only names and gestational
ages, but she could at least start keeping track of preterm admis
sions. Today was the beginning of the end for Dr. Wagner
