Dragonfly Photography

Preemies in the Bush

Yesterday I worked in the Neonatal Unit again. I had 4 (!) student nurses with me, 2 from Haydom and 2 from Norway. Inmagine in a hot, small room, 5 adults…

Anyway, after a nice, quiet morning, all hell broke loose. First, one of the babies that was not supposed to survive due to birthweight but has been hanging on for 5 days now, developed severe sepsis. So here I was, again, after all this time, starting another IV on a baby less than a kilo… Antibiotics were started and maybe he will survive the night..

Then one after the other baby came in that needed resuscitation. One too small and too early. One of my students sat with him in her lap until he died. The mother did not want to see him, she was told last week the baby in her womb had died. So she already had started her mourning process and imagine having heard this and then your baby is born alive, and the died about an hour later. But he did die peacefully, no prodding or sticking, by a nursing student that held him and talked to him.

Another newbron came in, no respiration, low heart rate. And then you have to make decisions you never though you would: from which baby can I take the oxygen away to use it on this one? Because these are the options: either two babies on nasal cannula oxygen, or one baby is ventilated with a mask and bag. So this is what you do… The other two are on their own for now. If their saturations drop, we’ll switch. Because the baby that needed to be helped with her breathing also needed chest compression. Since I had no oxygen to start with.

So today I am going back. I feel I can handle it much better than the first week, I am adjusting to the environment and equipment (or lack there of) Who knows, maybe I am able to do this….