So Beautiful So Mine
Uploaded by joeydaprof on Jun 12, 2006
So Beautiful
So Mine
Prologue
‘What have we got here?’
‘Twenty-one-year-old female with a premature baby in serious distress’
‘Ok, we need a pentothal induction and 50 milligrams of atropine’
‘We have no choice but to do an emergency caesarean. Nurse, organize the gases for anesthetic and prep the patient for theatre’
‘We are now connecting you to a drip and putting you under a general aesthetic, Mrs. McKenna’
‘Maree, Countdown from 10 for us’
10…9…8…
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
‘It’s a girl…she’s beautiful’
‘She’s small but she looks perfect’
Battling On
Doctor Bradford: Mrs Mckenna, Cytomegalovirus is a ‘way of life’ virus that is generally asymptomatic, but because you were pregnant at the time of contracting it, there have been some…significant side-effects on your baby. We have you on a high level of pethidine at the moment so that you will cope better with the pain and…with the news I have to tell you. Because of her prematurity, Monique weighs only 1.3kilograms, and in being born with less growth cells, her growth has been retarded. She has microcephaly meaning small head and therefore small brain. Because this infection affects her liver, it is quite swollen and she has severe jaundice - the bloodspots covering her face is called Petechia. These symptoms are all generally associated with Cytomegalovirus. She has Cerebral Palsy / Spastic Quadriplegia. She is probably deaf in both ears and may well be blind or severely visually impaired. I also regretfully have to tell you we don’t expect her to live more than a few days and if you were to have your husband by your side at any time, it should be now.
As these words engulfed my frail body, it felt like my stomach was digesting my heart. My tongue became like sandpaper. My throat was choking me. My head span and utterly overwhelmed, I collapsed into my mother’s arms – ‘oooh shiiit’.
Nanny Shirl: I phoned the hospital Chaplin to get him to the Hospital for a bedside baptism and he replied “I’m on my way, if you’d get off the phone, I could be quicker.”
Aunty Dodo: I remember clearly the moment the call came. I was at the hairdressers and three-quarters of the way through a perm. ”…she’s going into theatre in two hours.” My hair was quickly rinsed and towel dried and I raced to the hospital...