The next day brought another preterm labor into triage. Mitch
delivered the baby, who was born to a heroin-addicted mother,
seven weeks early. Within twenty-four hours, the baby began
to withdraw from the opiate. The nurses called Mitch into the
nursery and made him stay and watch as the inconsolable baby
jittered and shook. Her cry was a high-pitched screech.
“I swear that cry is going to peel the paint off the nursery
walls,” one of the nurses said.
The nurses tried everything, but nothing helped. She didn’t
want to be held, but she didn’t want to be put down. She wouldn’t
eat, yet she sucked like mad on her pacifier. Nothing soothed her.
The only thing to do was to give her the opiates her body was
withdrawing from.
One of the attending neonatologists started her on morphine.
Treating the baby’s withdrawal with small doses of opiates, then
slowly weaning her off, would take time—weeks of time.
Mitch felt bad for the suffering that the baby was enduring,
but it was going to happen eventually—whether the baby was
born now or six weeks from now. Everyone knew watching a baby
go through opiate withdrawal sucked but was unavoidable.
Amanda asked, “Mitch, why in the world did you choose to
deliver this one early?”
“I did the right thing by getting her out of that toxic, drug-in
fested environment. I did the baby a favor.”
Amanda walked away, shaking her head.
197
THE VERY BEST OF CARE
When Mitch was paged again to the tower of terror, he was
surprised to be met not by Charlie but by Madeline Cross,
chief operating officer.
“Mitch, do you think you’re playing God?”
“Nice to see you too,” replied Mitch.
“I don’t think this meeting calls for formalities. What pos
sessed you to deliver that thirty-three-week drug-addicted baby?
Do you really think it was your right to decide whether the baby
was better off out here in the world seven weeks early and with
drawing instead of staying inside her mother?”
“I absolutely believe it was the right thing to do. The baby
was wasting away in that uterus.”
Madeline sighed. “Just who do you think you are to make a
decision like that?”
Mitch stared her down.
“Watch your step, Mitch. People are paying attention.”
Mitch took the stairs down two at a time. Stopping on the land
ing between two of the floors, he made a call. He spoke briefly
with the person on the other end, then continued down to the
first floor
