Dr. Sheldon watched Danny’s monitors as the numbers drifted
down—blood pressure, oxygen saturation, heart rate. It had
been thirty-six hours since he’d received the blood transfusion.
“Kim, put him on an open warmer. We need full access. Start
another IV and a dopamine drip to help with his blood pressure.
We need to get his blood pressure up. Get some help over here.”
Kim quickly pulled the supplies together for a dopamine drip
and called for extra help. Christy appeared, and the two of them
carried out Dr. Sheldon’s orders. There were nurses with Danny
every minute. Dr. Sheldon and Dr. Morrison took shifts reliev
ing each other, never leaving the pod for more than a couple of
minutes. For a while, Danny stabilized, but he still needed a lot
of support to keep him alive.
Adam and Sophie sat next to Danny’s incubator with their eyes
glued to his monitors. They watched his blood pressure drop,
then come up, then drop again.
“Is the blood pressure medicine even working?” Sophie
demanded.
Kim, who was busy drawing up more meds, checking orders,
sending off blood gases to the lab, checking vital signs, and
adjusting ventilator settings, answered, “Yes, without it his blood
pressure would tank.”
His oxygenation monitor shrieked its alarm, and Kim hurried
over to turn the oxygen dial, giving Danny close to 100 percent.
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She studied the numbers on the monitors and called Dr. Sheldon
over.
“His color looks like shit,” Dr. Sheldon said. “He’s all mottled.
His heart can’t do the work.” Sheldon pulled out his stethoscope
and listened to Danny’s chest.
Kim called for respiratory therapy to come over and help her
adjust the ventilator. “His O2 sats are low, and he’s on a hundred
percent oxygen.”
The therapist adjusted different nobs on the ventilator,
watching and waiting for his oxygen levels to improve.
“Sheldon, he’s not peeing,” Kim said. “I’ve got a catheter in
him, and there’s nothing.”
“His whole body is shutting down,” Sheldon muttered to
himself. “Fuck.”
Dr. Sheldon left and stood just outside the pod, consulting
with a group of doctors. Sophie and Adam could see the drawn
looks on their faces and hear the muted tones of their voices.
A lab tech came into the pod searching for Kim. Kim studied
the piece of paper and shook her head. Something wasn’t right.
Kim hurried to Dr. Sheldon, who was standing outside the pod
with Dr. Morrison.
The three of them spoke together, then Dr. Sheldon walked
slowly over to Sophie and Adam.
In a somber tone, Dr. Sheldon explained that something very
strange had happened with Danny’s blood transfusion. The blood
that he had received was infected with Babesia—a rare Lyme dis
ease–related parasite.
Adam’s and Sophie’s jaws dropped at the same time.
“What are you saying?” Adam asked. “Are you telling us
that Danny’s transfusion had infected blood, after reassuring us
that donated blood is screened for everything?” He was incred
ulous. “How can this happen? You’re telling us the blood was
contaminated?”
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“How’s the other baby doing?” Sophie asked.
“He’s fine.”
“I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to it. I should have made
them wait until I could give my blood,” said Sophie.
“Explain to me how this is possible!” demanded Adam.
Dr. Sheldon stood with Kim. “He’s got three IV sites, with two
lines running into each. We need to start another blood pres
sure medication, and he needs more fluids. Can you piggyback
those to the IVs he’s already got going in?”
Kim nodded.
“And we’ll increase his morphine and fentanyl.” Dr. Sheldon
turned to Sophie and Adam to explain that Danny was going on
a different kind of ventilator—a jet ventilator—and they didn’t
want him fighting it.
Sophie and Adam moved out of the way as more people and
equipment crowded around Danny’s warmer.
“I can’t even believe this,” Sophie said, clutching Adam’s
hand. “We had just started talking about discharge plans. Adam,
I am so scared.”
He held her tight. “I know, babe, me too.”
Respiratory therapy brought in a new ventilator that Sophie
had never seen. When it was hooked up to Danny and turned on,
it did indeed sound like the engine of a 747, though not quite as
loud.
Kim couldn’t stop to talk. She wouldn’t take her attention off
Danny for one second. Christy was assigned to work with Kim.
His tenuous condition required constant adjustments to equip
ment and medications. Sophie and Adam held each other, backs
against the wall, knowing, with a sick feeling, that there was
nothing they could do to help their son.
As more people came to help, Adam and Sophie were pushed
farther away from the warmer until they were so far back they
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could no longer see their baby through the crowd of doctors and
nurses. They left the pod to stand outside the door, looking in,
observers of their own son’s deterioration.
Dr. Sheldon came out to talk with them. “You need to know
that the next twenty-four hours are critical.” He spoke softly, and
his eyes were warm with compassion. “We are hoping to see an
improvement in that time. He’s on three different antibiotics to
fight his infection. They’re the strongest we have, and if these
don’t work, I don’t know what else there is. While we wait for
the meds to work, we’ll give him whatever he needs to keep him
alive. Maximum ventilation and blood pressure support—those
are the two most important things.”
He continued, “I know this is a lot for you guys. It’s so damn
hard to watch a baby get this sick. But I wanted to level with
you about the infected blood, because I don’t believe in keeping
information from parents. That just leads to more problems later.
I want you to trust that we’re doing everything we can for Danny.
How that blood got contaminated, I have no idea, but we’ll find
out, I promise. Meanwhile, I want you two to hold on to each
other and hold on to the belief that he’ll be okay.”
He was called back into the pod.
The next shift started with two nurses to relieve Kim and
Christy for the night. Sophie and Adam dozed in chairs outside
the pod, getting up every so often to check on Danny. Through
the night, they saw no change. Sophie felt a glimmer of hope that
at least he wasn’t getting worse. She knew that if he got worse,
there was nothing more the doctors could do
