A Night in the NICU

Oh the NICU . . . we have such a love/hate relationship :-). I love the NICU because it is a place where miracles can happen (because lets be honest, there is nothing miraculous about curing an ear infection) and because you will see diseases there that you just will not see anywhere else. The hate comes from the AWFUL social situations - drug abusing moms, crackhead dads, abusive families etc. where sadly, social services often deems the families suitable to care for these fragile little people.

Well last night was my first 30 hour shift this month and I want to share the good, the bad, and the ugly from my first night back in the NICU. I'll keep the information trim so I don't violate patient confidentiality :-).

The good:

- one of my babies was born with a serious heart problem called a "hypoplastic heart" where part of the heart is underdeveloped and doesn't pump blood well. These babies have to have at least three surgeries to fix the problem and the likelihood that they will live through just the first phase is ~30% depending on the severity and other anomalies!! I've had several babies in the past with this problem and sadly most of my last have either passed away or had an injury to their brain. Well my latest kiddo with this condition is doing GREAT and is going home this weekend to grow and play and get ready for the next phase of his/her treatments. :-) Discharges are happy days.

The less than good:

- We recently had a new baby who was born with both male and female private parts (called ambiguous genitalia) which is really tough for the families first - luckily we looked at the babies chromosomes before he/she was born and found out the babies sex (it helps the families identify with their "little girl" vs. "little boy"). This kiddo will be worked up for things that cause this condition and that will help determine how this baby will do. If its just an anatomy issue then supposedly its a fairly easy fix (at least according to the surgeons).

The ugly:

- we had a baby whose mom tried to self abort at home but the baby lived and now has a lot of issues :-( I won't go into the how's and why's but it is just one of the MANY sad stories.

One of my most memorable babies was a full term baby who was born to lovely parents who tried for several years to get pregnant and had a completely normal pregnancy. However she had a rough delivery and the baby essentially suffocated at birth (called birth asphyxia). He/she was put on a ventilator just so mom could get up to say goodbye :-(. I think about this baby every time I walk in the nursery where the baby was.

I'll leave you a recent quote as told to a resident:

Resident: "Tell me about the dad, what do we know about his family?"

Mom of patient: "Oh it was just one of those meet and greets."

So much of medicine just can't be made up. . .