Bette Porter stood outside of ICU and stared into the large room where four patients were being prodded and examined by four teams of healthcare workers. She could barely make out Tina in the back of the room. Dr. Wilson stood over her nearly blue and quivering lover, staring down at her while shaking her head. Another doctor asked her a question and Dr. Wilson nodded just as the woman barked out orders to the nurses. Dr. Wilson turned toward the window that separated the ICU from the corridor. She saw a fearful Bette looking on, nearly catatonic, eyes widened in shock. Tina and Bette’s OB/GYN nodded her head at the specialist and then grasped Tina’s limp hand before walking away from the bed toward the door.
Bette straightened, bracing herself for the worst as Dr. Wilson approached. Bette met her at the door.
“What’s going on? How’s Tina? Is she going to be all right?”
Dr. Wilson’s voice was calming and she spoke slowly and succinctly so Bette not only understood, but was forced to take the time to process what was being said. “Bette, Tina’s in good hands right now. Dr. Zambrano is Los Angeles’ leading specialist in labor and delivery trauma. She’s seen this type of distress before and is confident that she can get Tina stable in no time. We’ve got a good team working on her.”
“What happened?”
“We just completed a CT Scan. Tina has some brain swelling. In delivery, she wasn’t getting enough oxygen or blood to her brain. It’s called anoxia. We could see a problem, but she was on the verge of delivery. We tried to stabilize her as much as possible for her to have a successful delivery…which she did. However, there were other issues. When we wheeled her in to delivery, she was already in trauma. Her fever was quite high.”
“When we were on our way over to the hospital, Tee was burning up.”
“While you were trying to have the home delivery, was Davina taking her temperature?” Davina was the midwife Dr. Wilson had recommended and she was usually a thorough and professional worker.
“I…I’m not sure.” Bette rubbed her forehead trying to recall events that were only a couple of hours earlier. “Uh, no, no she didn’t. She told me to help Tina walk around, then we got her in the birthing tub.”
“Right.” Dr. Wilson nodded. She had asked Bette these questions earlier in an attempt to find out what went wrong. “When things weren’t going well in the birthing tub, you and Davina were able to get her out?”
“Yes. And we rolled her onto her side and saw the grayish-green fluid? Davina felt the baby’s crown, but she was still inside, but this stuff started leaking out.”
“What did Davina do when the two of you saw the meconium?”
“She said we needed to get Tina here, so that’s what we did.
