Rough day in the NICU.

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Specializes in NICU/Neonatal transport.

I'm up in the NICU as a unit coord now (instead of just in the ER) and in nursing school and after Dec. I can start PCA'ing up in the NICU too...Yay!

Anyway, we had a rough day in the NICU on Friday.

35w baby with "birth asphyxia". Mom had felt babe stop moving on a Sun, didn't get it checked out until Monday, immediate delivery, but too late to really save the child in a meaningful way.

Sweet little boy was brain dead. They'd had many EEGs, each progressively worse. The parents finally decided to d/c life support. It was terrible because you could tell how much they loved that little baby and how much it hurt them to make that decision.

The hard part was they were getting an avalanche of phone calls - mostly from Dad's Dad and grandpa's pastor. Grandpa was screaming and swearing and threatening cops and lawsuits because we were "killing his grandson". Apparently, a few days prior, a finger had twitched on the child that the grandpa had witnessed, and he decided that meant the child would make a full recovery :( This pastor was also saying nasty things to the parents (or rather, had in the past, we weren't allowing her calls to go through)

It was just a sad situation all around. They removed the vent around 330, and by the time I left at 730, the baby was still alive :sniff: Just agonal breaths but a relatively strong HR. But I'm sure it made it that much worse for the parents. The baby's sats were in the 30s, but the heart rate wasn't going down.

I just had to get this out here. I felt so bad for the parents to have had to make that choice and deal with that. What a nightmare.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

Prayers to you all for taking such good care of a precious soul that can only be made well in Heaven.

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Specializes in NICU.

So sad to see a baby like that. It's hard enough on the parents, without dealing with grandparents who don't understand, etc. The parents made the right decision, though.

That situation is so hard for all concerned. We recently lost a term newborn to E Coli sepsis. Looked bad at delivery, then picked up, for just a few hours. Baby deteriorated, and went on a vent after shift change, then coded. That left everyone in tears. :(

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Unfortunately I've seen more than a few cases like that. It's hard for everyone involved, but the parents especially need support not judgements from their family.

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I just grateful days like that are few and far between...

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