Up close and personal

She weighed in at only 1.8kg.  She smelled like pus.  And she was cuddled to my chest.  Not how I usually manage my patients...

 



I had done an emergency C-section on her mom, a young woman with a vesico-vaginal fistula.  Once a fistula has been repaired (or attempted to be repaired), a woman needs to have a C-section if she gets pregnant again because a natural delivery would tear open all the stitches.  This young lady came in with minimal information available, but clearly in labor, and so I took her to the OR for a C-section.

 

The pus was foul.  It was in her ears.  It was in her eyes.  It was in her mouth.  And she wasn't breathing.

 

I can't be in two places at once.  I called for help.  One doctor looked after her while I finished suturing her mom. 

 

By the time I got to her, she was breathing on her own with a bit of oxygen and the nurse anesthetist had gotten an IV started for me.  But she was tiny -- only 1.8kg -- and cold -- only 34 C.  

 

Her mom was in recovery room, waiting for her room to be readied, and the nurses weren't ready for her.  The incubator was in the pediatrics ward; the mom was in the women's ward; the baby was with me in Maternity.  The midwife was trying to understand my instructions for diluting ampicillin and gentamicin down to tiny-baby-dosing.  I couldn't leave Maternity, and yet I had to do something to warm her up.

 

So I cuddled her up to my chest and wrapped a blanket around us both -- kangaroo care of a sort.

 

She smelled like pus.  She was tiny and fragile.  She had no diaper on (the hospital doesn't provide them and the family hadn't yet given us something to use for a diaper).  She was a bit messy.  And she was whimpering.

 

And I held her anyways.  Because she is precious.  And I was reminded of God's incredible heart of love for His people -- for us in our messiness and smelliness and imperfection.

 

"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you!  See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands!"  Isaiah 49:15-16

 

Pray for this little one.  She has a long road ahead to survive in a country with the highest child mortality rate in the world.

I stumbled across this passage this week while looking for something else.  It brought me great hope...

"See, I will create a new heavens and a new earth.  The former things will not be remembered...  Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years...  They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord...  Before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear."  Isaiah 65: 17-25

That, indeed, is my prayer and hope for this country.  One day...