Chapter 7 - The Emergency Delivery
The ambulance bay at Mercy General was transformed into an emergency delivery suite within seconds of Caleb’s cruiser screeching to a halt outside.
Dr. Mara Ellison met them at the doors with a team of obstetric nurses and a neonatology unit.
"She’s thirty-two weeks! Full placental abruption! We need an emergency C-section right now!" Mara shouted, pushing the gurney down the hall toward Operating Room 3.
Nora grabbed Mara’s sleeve, her knuckles white. "Ethan... how is Ethan?!"
"He’s still in ICU, Nora! Focus on your daughter right now!" Mara commanded, slamming the OR doors open.
Anesthesia was administered through an epidural mask. The bright lights of the operating room spun above Nora’s head like blinding stars. She could feel the pressure, the frantic movements of the surgeons, the hum of monitoring equipment.
"Pressure dropping! Get two units of O-negative on the line!"
"Scalpel."
Nora closed her eyes, her mind drifting six floors up to the cold ICU room where her husband lay sleeping under the hum of a ventilator.
Live, Ethan, she pleaded in her mind. Please live. She’s coming. Our daughter is coming.
At 4:18 AM, a thin, sharp cry echoed through the operating room.
WAAAAAH! WAAAAAH!
"We have a baby girl!" the neonatologist announced, wrapping a tiny, three-pound infant in a warm blanket. "32 weeks, breathing spontaneously! Apgar score seven!"
The nurse brought the tiny bundle over to Nora’s face.
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Nora looked down at the tiny, wrinkled face, the tuft of dark hair, the tiny blue eyes opening against the bright lights.
"Wren..." Nora whispered, pressing a kiss to her daughter's warm forehead before the nurses rushed the baby to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. "You made it, my sweet girl... you made it."
