Another Step in Making Change

I apologize for taking so much time between posts lately. I am absolutely exhausted. 37 weeks 1 day pregnant today and I am feeling it. The way I am carrying this (bigger) baby is really having an affect on my body. I can manage to get myself up to go to work but that is about it at this point. I get home and I am DONE. It's a real struggle to cook dinner for the family and keep the house clean at this point. I tried to sweep the living room today and I had to lay down afterwards because my back hurt. I am looking forward to not being pregnant anymore and soon. My poor body needs a break.

I know a lot of people have wondered what we are doing with the whole legal situation right now. I can't go into that quite yet but I did want to share a meeting Dan and I had last week with the Vice President of Medical Affairs at the Hospital where I gave birth to Naya. It was quite interesting and, honestly, a good experience. I went in there expecting to be placated and brushed off but was pleasantly surprised when the opposite happened. He was very forthcoming, apologetic and honest. He admitted that there were faults in what happened and took responsibility for them. He also apologized, which I know sounds like a small gesture, but it was one in which we were really appreciative of. No one has done this so far, especially not the old pediatrician. It was bittersweet to hear but it helped. Nothing is going to bring her back (believe me, if there was something I would have tried it) but it helped to hear that we did everything we could have and other people screwed up. Multiple times. Ugh.

He also told us that some steps were being taken to prevent this from happening again. There was and is going to be another internal review process, especially concerning the behavior of the pediatrician. We are not legally permitted to know what occurs because of the process but he told us that sometimes physician's privileges are revoked until they go back to school to "relearn" procedure. He also told us that the hospital is planning on creating a new position in their labor and delivery department to help ensure that this does not happen again. They are hiring a neonatal Nurse Practitioner to act as a liaison between their nurses and the doctors. This person would be in charge of looking for inconsistencies and acting on them. (In our case - this person would have seen that the nurses noted that Naya hadn't pooped and wasn't eating and it would have been her job to raise the red flag, despite what the doctor might have ordered.) We were very glad to hear this and are thankful that the hospital is taking this seriously. Our hope is that this will prevent other families from having to go through a similar experience. I wish we didn't have to be poster children for change but since I can't change what happened, I have to do something. It gives her life some purpose and that helps. Somewhat. I still would rather have her back.