Inside Schwartz Center Rounds®

Please note that names and some case details have been changed to protect patient confidentiality.

A Medley of Miracles

A standing room-only crowd gathered in the large conference room of a community hospital in New England. Employees from throughout the hospital had come to Schwartz Center Rounds® that day – anxious to hear about a case that just two weeks earlier had sorely tested the hospital and its staff but had also made them believe in miracles and the power of teamwork.

The emergency room physician who had been on duty that fateful morning began by telling his story. He had gotten up at 3:30 am to clear his driveway after a raging snowstorm the night before. Amazingly, he arrived at the hospital right on time at 7. For the first few minutes, things were quiet. He attended to a patient with a sore leg while the blizzard continued outside.

Just as he was thinking it might be a relatively easy day, one of the nurses alerted him that the town ambulance was en route with a 36-year-old woman who was 26 weeks pregnant and experiencing seizures.

When the woman was wheeled into the emergency room, the situation quickly turned critical. In between seizures, she was able to let caregivers know that she was experiencing severe back pain and was having difficulty breathing. “Help me, help me – I’m going to die!” she screamed.

It became clear that in order to save her life and the life of her baby, someone needed to do an emergency c-section right away. Fortunately, there was an OB meeting going on in the hospital that morning so there were a number of skilled obstetricians ready to help. A contingent of nurses from the hospital’s special care nursery was also summoned to the scene.

There was no time to move the patient to an operating room, so the obstetrician selected to do the c-section began to do the procedure immediately in the emergency room. At that moment, both the mother and baby coded.

Since it was shortly after the change of shifts, staff from the night shift stayed on so the day shift could provide the urgent care the patient needed. The woman’s husband, who had been notified, had arrived in the emergency room and was by his wife’s side offering words of encouragement. There was quiet, organization and focus – with everyone doing their part and functioning effectively as a team.

Rounds participants listened intently as one of the emergency room nurses said that she had been able to step out of the room to call the patient’s mother, father and sister who immediately rushed to the hospital. She said she knew her patient would need all the help she could get. Staff had also earlier learned from the woman’s husband that the couple had intended to name the baby “Emily,” which added another level of humanity to the scene. She was tiny person, a person with a name, a life the staff was committed to saving.

The baby was successfully resuscitated and taken to the special care nursery. The mother, however, remained gravely ill with a probable blood clot. She needed to be transferred immediately to a hospital with a cardiac catheterization lab.

Because of the blizzard conditions outside, airlifting her to another hospital was not an option, so she was placed in an ambulance with her entire healthcare team. Before the door closed, the emergency room physician called out to make room for one more person: her terrified husband.

With a police escort, they got her to the next hospital safely – where miraculously there was a cancelation in the cath lab and an available operating room and surgeon. As the surgeon attempted to remove the clot, the patient coded again, and open heart surgery was ultimately necessary to remove the clot. Her condition was still grave, so it was decided that she needed to be transferred to yet another hospital for follow-up care. The baby was also transferred to a tertiary care center.

At Schwartz Center Rounds, staff learned that both the mother and baby “Emily” had just been discharged from the hospital and were doing well at home. Team members had an opportunity to express their gratitude to one another for the support they had received and their pride in working in a hospital with such professional and caring staff.

They reflected on the fact that numerous caregivers and hospitals had been involved in saving the lives of these two patients, and that everyone had stood at the ready to help. It was as if a great symphony had played, with everyone knowing their essential roles. Truly beautiful music was made that day.

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A Medley of Miracles

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