Emergency C-section

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After 2 weeks of being delayed (due to the professors at MUST going on strike), we finally came to Rugazi. I have absolutely loved being in the clinic as I’ve been able to assist in physical assessments and observe procedures being done, however some days have been hard. The night before last I got woken up at almost 1:00am to see if I wanted to observe a C-section. I had never seen one before and wasn’t sure what to expect. I ended up fainting before they even cut through the adipose tissue. Once my sight came back I continued to lay on the floor of the OR for a few minutes until I felt comfortable standing again. I got up just in time to see them take the baby out of the uterus. The baby wasn’t breathing (which was not unexpected because the reason for the C-section was umbilical prolapse) and I watched the nurses perform a slow code. After about a minute a nurse informed me the baby was dead. I was very upset but did not allow myself to cry in the OR. I tried to watch them sew up the uterus but found myself feeling faint and nauseous. I exited the room several times during the closing to calm myself down and prevent more fainting. I got back home at 2:30am and completely broke down by myself in the commons room. I did not join the QES group for breakfast or go with them to the clinic the next morning because I needed time to process. I eventually joined them later on in the clinic because I wanted to check on a malnourished peds case I was involved with. In hindsight I probably should not have gone to the clinic at all because when I got home I felt completely burnt out and did not go on the afternoon/evening outing with the group. Reflecting on this incident, I think the hardest part was knowing that the baby may have lived if we were in Canada because the procedure would have been done much sooner (they delayed the procedure because the patient’s attendant had to go and buy supplies) an ICU team would have been waiting for the baby, and more resources would have been available to help. The nurses coding the baby didn’t even have a stethoscope to listen for a heart rate. Being here certainly makes me appreciate all the resources we have back home.

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