SANDY CHURCH WAS DESPERATE for a glimpse of her newborn daughter. But when her wheelchair was rolled past the high windows of the Intensive Care Nursery, every shade was drawn.
"How sick is she, Tim?" Sandy asked her husband. Up from her memory rose the sound of the doctor's whispered "Oh, no," when he saw the baby's enlarged head on ultrasound. Seconds after Leah's birth, the nurse had whisked the baby away, and Sandy had been too groggy with painkillers to demand an explanation.
For 24 hours after her emergency caesarean, she was delirious with fever from a massive pelvic infection. Where is Leah? she wondered frantically.
Now as she and her husband approached the nursery entrance, Sandy shivered, “Her head is just a little bit big, isn't it, Tim?" she asked, fighting panic. Her tall, fair husband was silent as they moved past a row of incubators and came slowly to a standstill.
There, in the incubator before her, lay a tiny baby girl smothered in a maze of tubes. Her head was so enlarged that her ears were pushed down on to her neck.
"No! No!" Sandy whispered. She was ashamed to speak aloud the thought that rushed into her mind: She can't be mine. Tim, white-faced and mute, took her hand. “What on earth is wrong with her?" Sandy wailed.
"HYDROCEPHALUS". ONE OF THE attending physicians spoke the word to Tim and Sandy that afternoon. “We don't know exactly why, but in some babies the brain's normal drainage system shuts down before birth. Fluid accumulates in the head and compresses the brain tissue. Your baby has the worst case I've ever seen."
The doctor told them the baby could die. Sandy fought back tears.
"But if she should live?" Tim asked.
"From what we can tell, she would have very little chance for anything beyond a vegetative existence."
Denne historien er fra May 2022-utgaven av Reader's Digest India.
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Denne historien er fra May 2022-utgaven av Reader's Digest India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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From the King's Table to Street Food: A Food History of Delhi
Pushpesh Pant, one of India’s pre-eminent food writers, is back with a comprehensive food history of the capital.
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Prevent The Pain Of Shingles
You don't have to suffer, as long as you take two important steps
The Best And Worst Diets For Your Heart
Dozens of diets are touted as ‘best’, but it’s easy to lose track of the fact that healthy eating needs to be about overall wellness, not just weight loss.
ME & MY SHELF
Journalist Sopan Joshi has worked in a science and environment framework for nearly three decades. His book Mangifera indica: A Biography of the Mango (Aleph Book Company) synthesizes the sensory appeal of India's favourite fruit with its elaborate cultural roots and natural history. He writes in English and Hindi.
SWITCHED
In 1962, nurses at a small Canadian hospital sent home two women with the wrong babies. Then, 50 years later, their children discovered the shocking mistake.
ECHOES OF THE PAST
A VISIT TO THE ANCIENT BARABAR CAVES IN BIHAR REVEALS A SURPRISING CONNECTION TO A LITERARY CLASSIC
Fathers of the Bride
A young woman finds a unique way to honour the many men who helped her survive her childhood
Fiction's Foresight
British-Bangladeshi author Manzu Islam's works reveal startling parallels to recent political upheavals in Bangladesh, begging the question: Besides helping us make sense of our world, can stories also offer a glimpse into the future?
It Happens ONLY IN INDIA
The Divine Defence Picture this: A tractor in Rajasthan‘s Banswara district,a group of loan agents closing in to seize it and the defaulting farmer and his family standing by.
