The baby’s eyes were closed. He looked serene as he floated
around the barrel like he was in a bathtub. Weightless and
with plenty of space around him, he moved his arms and legs
as if he were swimming. He was small, only slightly bigger than
Danny was when he was born.
Recovering from their initial shock, the two women stepped
up to the tub again, this time more cautiously. Taking their time,
they looked again.
“He looks so calm and relaxed,” Rihanna said softly.
“I know,” said Sophie. “It’s like he’s back in his mother’s
womb.” The whole place held a feeling of tranquility and safety.
Reality check, Sophie—this is screwed up! Then the next minute,
she wondered, Or is it a medical marvel?
Sheldon interrupted the moment. “I’m going to let Dr. Hen
nessy explain things to you.”
A young doctor stepped out from behind a desk.
“Peter, this is Sophie Young,” Sheldon said, “and this is my
fiancée, Rihanna. I’m so glad you all get to meet at this auspi
cious time.”
“Dr. Hennessy . . . that name sounds familiar,” Sophie said.
“Do you work in the NICU?”
“Actually, I started working at Metro about six months ago in
the anesthesia department. But when WMI offered me a position
here, I gladly accepted it. Let me show you around.”
288
JULIE HATCH
Sophie and Rihanna looked in the next barrel, which was
empty. They whispered back and forth to each other.
“What is going on?”
“What are they doing?”
“This is crazy!”
Sheldon cleared his throat and turned his attention to Dr.
Hennessy, indicating for the ladies to do the same. They followed
Dr. Hennessy as he led them through the room and around each
barrel. Sheldon followed behind. Two of the twelve tanks were
occupied. Dr. Hennessy explained the mechanics of providing an
artificial womb for underdeveloped fetuses.
“The machine, designed much like the ECMO machine
you’ve seen in the NICU, functions as a placenta. Each flu
id-filled tank serves as an artificial womb. The tanks are filled
with a synthetic amniotic fluid, which over time, we modify to
be more like natural amniotic fluid through cellular enhance
ment. The baby’s two umbilical arteries and single vein connect
to tubes that connect to the ECMO-like machine. Blood is cir
culated through the machine, where waste is removed and then
replaced with clean, oxygenated blood and circulated back into
the fetus.
“The age of the baby must be right—eighteen to thirty-ish
weeks. Younger than seventeen or eighteen weeks is too small
for the tubes and most of the equipment. Between eighteen and
twenty-three weeks is ideal, when we can most help the brain,
lungs, and liver to develop in a perfect environment.”
Sophie listened, hanging on every word and trying to under
stand the full scope of what Sheldon and Dr. Hennessy were doing.
“We have technical hurdles we’re still working to over
come,” Dr. Hennessy went on. “We need to get the babies here
within minutes of birth so that we can keep their lungs from
fully expanding. It’s the ECMO machine that breathes for them
289
THE VERY BEST OF CARE
and keeps them alive, not their lungs.” He looked to Sheldon to
take over.
“Yes, that is our biggest challenge,” Sheldon continued.
“Timing is everything. But once we’re able to do that, once we
get them connected to the imitation womb, then we’re in busi
ness. The fetuses float unencumbered and without the pressure
of gravity weighing on their fragile skin and bones. Noise is min
imal, and whatever noise does reach them is muffled. Everyone
who works here is instructed to speak in calm, soothing voices.
There is no unpleasant stimulation. There are no needle sticks,
no tubes down their throats with ventilator pressure damaging
their lung tissue, no bright lights in their eyes, no sudden loud
noises—there is nothing like the current state of the NICU,
which you both know so well. This is as close to replicating life
in the womb as technologically possible.”
Sophie’s mind raced. “Where do these babies come from? Is
this a WMI thing? Is this even legal?”
Ignoring Sophie’s questions, Sheldon continued to lead the
small group through the maze of vessels.
Stopping at one of the tubs, he looked in. “Do you remember
Anna?” he asked Sophie. “Of course you do. This is her baby.
She’s almost fully mature and is doing quite well.”
Sophie was blown away when she peered into the tub. “This
is Anna’s baby?”
She even looked like Anna. Her heart filled with love for this
poor baby who lost her mother before her life even began.
Sheldon paused, allowing Sophie to absorb what she was
seeing. “Anna’s baby was saved, all thanks to the Foundling
project.”
“What’s going to happen to her?” Sophie asked, still gazing at
the baby in the tub.
“I’ll get to that in a minute. But first, your questions. Yes, it’s
WMI who is helping to fund this project, and technically it’s still
290
JULIE HATCH
experimental. We’ve had one success, and WMI is pushing us to
get more results, faster.
“But let me back up a minute. You should know Mitch no
longer has anything to do with this project. We started it together
a couple of years ago. Mitchell is brilliant in many ways, and
together we developed the idea. But over that time, he changed,
and as we all know, he is no longer fit or able to participate in the
project.” Sheldon’s voice got louder. “I’m taking over and leaving
him out of it. He would poison it and find a way to turn it into
a dark project if I allowed him to be involved, and I refuse to let
that happen.”
He stopped and lowered his voice. “That’s the argument you
and Adam witnessed in the cafeteria,” he said to Sophie. “I told
Madeline everything I knew about Mitch’s census scheme, and,
as we all saw, she sent him away. WMI fed him to the wolves. I
don’t know what’s going to happen to him, but the Foundling
will not be a part of his future.”
He moved on to the next two tanks. “Look here,” he said, his
voice softening. “This baby was born early to a heroin-addicted
mother. Here, she’s able to be weaned off the heroin gently,
sparing her the miserable experience of opiate withdrawal. This
peaceful, nontoxic environment is perfect for all fetuses but espe
cially those who have been drug exposed. All the babies in here
are free from toxins, alcohol, nicotine, stress hormones, medica
tions, air pollution—all the substances in a mother’s system that
can potentially harm her baby.
“This tub here,” he said, stepping over to the next vessel,
which held fluid but no baby, “was where we had the baby that
I think you were worried about, Sophie. His mother took off the
first night after he was born, never to be heard from again. No
family, no emergency contact information for us to follow up
with. Unfortunately, we didn’t get him here fast enough, and he
didn’t survive.”
291
THE VERY BEST OF CARE
They walked through the maze of the remaining unoccupied
tubs.
“Upstairs in the hospital, I oversee the medical care of thou
sands of premature babies every year. But down here”—he swept
his hand through the air—“we’ll be saving babies who never
would have lived.”
“This is amazing, Sheldon,” said Rihanna. “I can’t believe
this is what you’ve been spending all your time on. Now things
make more sense.”
Sheldon put his arm around her, pulling her to him.
“It sure is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.” Sophie looked
around the vast room. “I am so glad to see that Anna’s baby is
alive. And now I know what happened to that other baby who
had mysteriously disappeared.”
Sheldon watched her. “But?” he asked.
Sophie chewed her lip, thinking about what she wanted to
say. “It’s playing with Mother Nature in a way that maybe she
didn’t intend. My heart is glad to know that some babies can be
given a chance, but my head is questioning the ethics of it.”
“I asked myself the same thing initially. Is this the right thing
to do? I quickly came up with the answer that yes, it is. As long as
the people in charge are committed to using it ethically.”
Sheldon continued, “Placental abruption, miscarriage, pre
mature rupture of membranes, all the things that can go wrong
midway through a pregnancy—we now have a solution for those
moms and babies. We all know it’s best for a baby to remain
inside of mom for as long as possible.” Sheldon reconsidered.
“Well, maybe not in an environment saturated with heroin and
fentanyl. But otherwise, when staying inside the mother is not
possible, this is the next best option.”
“So what’s going to happen to Anna’s baby?”
“The two babies here now will go up for adoption. They are
wards of the state. Anna’s baby is in state custody because there
292
JULIE HATCH
is no living relative able to take her. The mother of the hero
in-addicted baby has lost custody because of the damage she did
to her baby in utero, but if she manages to rehab and pull her life
together, the baby may go back to her eventually. But that’s a big
maybe.”
Sophie wondered to herself what she and Adam would have
done if their only choice had been to adopt from here. Would
they still have adopted? “Anyone who sees what’s going on here
is going to ask you the obvious question.”
“And what’s that?” asked Sheldon.
“Are you profiting off these orphaned kids?”
“Sophie! I’m insulted. Of course not! I’m Mitch’s half brother,
not his evil clone. WMI controls the operations. Try to look at it
from my perspective. It’s a solution for children entering an already
overpopulated and overstrained social system. No matter how you
look at it, it is the best thing for these babies. They are so much
better off here than if they were born too early and put in the
NICU. There is no black market here. WMI won’t allow it, and
anyhow, that’s not me.” Sheldon paused again. “If you think about
it, we’re reversing the damage Mitch has done. He purposely deliv
ered babies early. I’m working to save those same babies.”
Everybody was quiet for a few minutes, lost in their own
thoughts.
Dr. Hennessy spoke. “Everything is automated. A human is
here twenty-four seven, but the monitoring and necessary adjust
ments to the equipment are done automatically. The more we
can leave these babies alone in their artificial wombs, the better
off they are . . . Oh, another thing,” he added. “They’re currently
using this technology in Europe. My guess is that pretty soon it
will be in every major hospital in the US.”
“Ten years?” Rihanna questioned.
Dr. Hennessy paused, then said at the same time as Sheldon,
“Well, maybe twenty.”
293
THE VERY BEST OF CARE
Sheldon continued, “What you see here is a pilot study—our
first trial run. I’m not in this for the money. My purpose is all
about helping sick babies survive. That’s it. And now that I’m a
father, I can’t imagine what it must be like to lose a child.”
Rihanna cocked an eyebrow in mild surprise.
“Let’s go upstairs,” said Sheldon. “We’ve got more to talk
about, but it doesn’t have to be down here.” He pulled on his
jacket. “Peter, you got this for a couple of hours? I’m heading out
for a bit.”
“Sure, I’m good,” he answered.
“Call me if you need me. Just remember to use the landline.
There’s no cell service down here.”
Sheldon walked with Rihanna and Sophie back through
the tunnel. When they got outside, Sophie took a deep breath,
relieved to be out in the fresh air.
“We have to keep Mitch out of this,” said Sheldon. “If he
does jail time, then it’s not an issue until he’s out. But if he gets
out on bail or is given a lenient sentence of community service
or something, I’m going to need to figure out how to keep him
away. Right now, he thinks he’s still in charge. He won’t be able
to handle the idea of not being included, let alone not in charge.”
Sophie considered this as she gave them a wave and headed
back to the hospital.
