Family Birth Center & Rapid Response Teams

This team of nurses operated together as a competent, cohesive, well-trained unit to save my wife's life after severe blood loss following childbirth. After a relatively smooth birth, the placenta did not deliver, and so the doctor had to try to remove it, which resulted in a rare and life-threatening uterine inversion. Due to heavy blood loss, my wife went from breastfeeding our newborn to losing all color and vomiting in a matter of minutes.

Melissa, who had been with us throughout labor, remained calm and collected while responding to the unfolding situation and assisting the doctor. When things took a turn for the worse, she called for a rapid response, which meant all available nurses came to help. Develle and her ICU response team arrived on the scene and immediately took charge of getting an emergency blood transfusion set up as fast as possible. Develle, working rapidly with confidence born of expertise, manually took my wife's blood pressure because it was too low to register on the machines.

Solmaz, Morgan, Marielle, Ardelyn, Melissa, and other nurses all worked together to retrieve the blood, set up the IVs, administer and log the cascade of drugs the doctor was calling for, prep the OR, put more blood on standby, and more. These actions seemed to be happening before anyone could ask for them. These nurses were prepared and trained for this situation and were anticipating what needed to be done. As soon as the blood was flowing, my wife started to feel a bit better, which gave the doctor time to replace the uterus and complete the D and C and necessary stitches, which took almost 3 hours.

In the meantime, Nancy recognized that our precious new daughter had not yet received the newborn care she needed, including tagging her ankle, Vitamin K, eye ointment, Hep B vaccine, and more, and so took on the responsibility of caring for her even though she was not assigned. She also helped calm me down and guided me in splitting time between being with my newborn and being beside my wife.

Later on, Melissa and Develle each stopped by to check on my wife on their own time. Other nurses stopped us in the hall to say they were there that night and to ask how my wife was feeling. We stopped by Labor and Delivery on our way out of the hospital to thank these brave nurses. They told us they train for this type of situation once a month, and it showed.

I have no doubt that their swift, coordinated, compassionate response saved my wife's life, and I am beyond grateful that we will be able to raise our daughter together.