OBHG Hospitalist Dr. George Kingsley was on shift early one morning when he received a call from a labor nurse. She was taking care of a private patient and her induction had been started the night before. The baby’s heart rate was low and had been for a few minutes.
After a quick evaluation of the patient, Dr. Kingsley tried all the usual maneuvers to improve the baby’s heart rate. None of them were successful. He had to make an emergency decision.
“If we had not been in the hospital, that baby would either be significantly neurologically impaired with cerebral palsy or other brain damage or not have survived the event. You know, national standards say an incision should be made within 30 minutes of declaring an emergency C-section. But if physicians are not in the hospital, that 30-minute time frame is very difficult to hit under the best of circumstances. Mom did well and the baby did well. It was a good outcome for everybody. We see these types of high-risk, high-acuity circumstances often as OB hospitalists. This represents one of the classic cases where being in-house and having an in-house OB hospitalist made a difference and resulted in a life save.”
Watch Dr. Kingsley’s video account of his story and learn how he delivered life-saving care.