It is only her knowledge as an ICU physician that allows her to piece together what is happening. Post-operatively, she comes to consciousness during the daily nightmare experience of the morning ventilator weaning trial. With a hemoglobin of 3 and platelets near to zero, she is finally rushed into surgery. Awdish who identifies the absence of the fetal heartbeat. An obstetrical resident wheels in a portable ultrasound machine and leads with the caveat “I’m not great at these yet” (ch 1). Awdish pleads that he call his attending. The general surgery intern arrives and starts a cumbersome H&P, and Dr. Awdish surreptitiously adjusts the rate to wide open - the only one in the room to recognize her body is in shock.
When the nurse sets the rate of IV saline to a slow drip, Dr. The pressure of the fetal heart-rate monitor band across her midsection is unbearable (to be soon discovered because hemorrhaging blood has filled her abdomen), but a nurse scolds her, “Leave that on! What’s wrong with you?” (ch 1). The nurses focus on assessing the baby, ignoring her assertions that something is wrong with her. Besides, arguing would be futile - policy is sacrosanct at her institution. Barely conscious and in a wheelchair, she is powerless to argue. She senses that the problem is not obstetrical, but something else - something visceral.īut instead of being whisked into her hospital’s level 1 trauma center, she is triaged away by the security guard - because of a hospital policy dictating all patients six months gestation or higher go to Labor and Delivery. In the transcendent memoir “ In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope” pulmonary/critical care physician Rana Awdish is seven months pregnant when she develops sudden onset of excruciating abdominal pain.
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