The following is adapted from a letter to the editor of Live Action News.
I am an Emergency Medicine resident in [redacted for privacy]…. While on my OB/GYN rotation at an outside hospital, a woman experiencing a failed abortion came to the hospital. The mom had [an abortion injury] and they transferred her to the hospital. While there, she ended up going into labor. She was 21-23 weeks along when she delivered a beautiful baby girl.
The staff expected the baby to “expire” immediately, but she began crying.
I walked into my night shift, and the baby lay in a bassinet alone. I asked who the cute baby was, and this is when I was told “it” was an abortion attempt and they were just waiting on “it” to die.
The attending doctor claimed “palliative care is medical care” – and left the baby to die
For the extent of my rotation, the attending OB/GYN doctor criticized pro-life states and talked about how she is working for legislation to have better ‘abortion care.’ She claimed that “palliative care is medical care” based on the law — and when when the baby was born alive, she did nothing. She did not call pediatrics or a rapid response but stated the baby was an abortion attempt and unwanted, so she would provide palliative care to satisfy the law that requires medical care to be provided.
I picked up the baby and was berated by one of the residents, who instructed me to “put it back because the nurses need to keep checking on it to document when it dies.” I declined, and sat there crying for the remainder of the subsequent sign-out and shift. I was helpless and there was nothing I could do. She had already been alive at that point a few hours, but without respiratory support, I knew she already was experiencing organ failure.
When an unrelated medical emergency caused the entire OB team to rush to the OR, I was an emergency resident just there for my 10 deliveries as required by my program, so I took the baby to a room alone, prayed over her, and sang to her.
The Lord gave me the name “Ada” for the baby, which I later learned means “adornment.” Ada died a few hours later.
I put her back in the bassinet, and she was referred to as “dead baby” by many of the nurses throughout the night. The attending doctor who came on night shift later officially pronounced her dead and remarked, “She could have been president” — making me wonder if she, too, was possibly pro-life.
In my mind, Ada was mine. Even though I’m a single female still in training, I had every intention of adopting her if she had survived.
I often think about the baby’s mom, too, who heard her baby cry before they rushed the baby from the room. She was later discharged after being treated for complications. I know she is likely suffering, and was left without any support or counseling.
“They threw the simulation baby across the room”
I don’t think people realize that these types of situations are happening even in our hospitals. This little girl clearly looked like a baby. I don’t understand how anyone could see her and do nothing.
Some time later, we participated in a training simulation for peri-mortem c-sections. By definition, this is performed on women with viable pregnancies “to save the mother” by diverting blood flow away from the uterus and to her other organs. While practicing, all my colleagues were joking that you get the baby from the uterus and “throw it away” because “we don’t care about a fetus and only want to focus on helping the mom.” They even took the simulation baby and threw it across the room. Again, this procedure is performed on viable babies who could be 24 or even 39 weeks!
I was pretty quiet after this all happened, trying to keep my emotions in check while thinking about Ada — and was essentially chased down the hallway by some fellow residents who lectured me to not let my politics influence patient care, which I found ironic.
I’m hoping Ada’s story can shine light on what’s happening every day, with these sorts of things done even by medical professionals.
Editor’s Note: This story has been adapted and is being published anonymously for the safety and privacy of the author.
