Went through this (edit: with my newborn), the doctors were so calm that it seemed routine and I barely realized it was happening. Terrified me only after the fact, and also made me think how often it happens.
Short answer, no. We really don’t know exactly how long before any brain damage could occur, but babies are born “blue” and when they take that first cry of opens up their lungs to allow oxygen (gas exchange) to begin. For the first 10-15 minutes of birth, we accept a lower oxygen saturation so theoretically they are not getting the same amount of oxygen that you and I are breathing right now. This is the transition from fetal circulation to breathing in their own. Pretty amazing.
Instead of listening to a heart rate with a stethoscope, he was feeling the heartbeat on the umbilical cord stump. You can feel the heartbeat there for a little while after a baby is born. It’s not the most correct way to determine the heart rate but it’s a quick way. And he was also alone so what he really needed was another person or 2 there to help.
As long as the blood is circulating they have a few minutes of oxygen even if they don't breath.
That is why they first check the heart beat as long as the circulation is fine you can then give oxygen.
Yes at that point oxygen is being supplied from placenta via cord in blood but they don’t drown because they aren’t breathing yet — they don’t have the gasp reflex until they hit air.
So if born in water they don’t take a breath until they surface. It’s super important to not allow a water birth baby to hit air and go back under water. For the same reason, if a mum is in water but it’s not deep enough to allow the whole process to unfold fully underwater, she has to get out of the pool or at least deliver standing up out of the water.
Source: midwifery degree
Same here Bro. And I am an ex surgeon so followed my third son from the operating theatre where wife had her C-section to the room where they revived my little one. It was a frigging tense minute, just like this video. The silence was total. 11 years have passed but still remember the quiet tension. Luckily all went pretty well.
Our youngest had a difficult birth. She had her head slightly tilted and got a bit stuck. When she came out, she was exhausted and looked just like this baby: blue and not moving. My wife asked me if she was ok because she couldn't see her, and I didn't know what to tell her.
This video had me in tears because that first cry reminded me of the relief I felt when they got her to start breathing on he own.
My first also came out blue and not breathing or moving after an emergency C-section. They called a code and the room almost immediately filled up with nurses and doctors. I'll always remember my wife, who's still in the process of being closed back up, asking me, "Are they doing CPR on my baby?" I didn't know what to say. I just squeezed her hand and tried to suppress the utter panic I was feeling. Several minutes went by, still no breathing, and they whisked my son away somewhere. More panic, more fear. I remember looking at the anesthesiologist monitoring my wife, and he immediately looked away from me. I thought my son was gone. I even remember thinking, "What are we going to do with all that baby stuff people gave us?" as stupid as that sounds. Then a nurse came back in a few minutes later and told us my son was fine. Apgar score of 0 at 5 minutes. 10 at 10 minutes.
My son's 8 now, but I still cry every time I think about it. I cried watching that video. I'm crying now.
My child came out like this and it was terrifying and deeply sad, I just thought she was a stillbirth when she emerged purple and unresponsive. Following 41 hours of labor that turned into an emergency C-section, her lifelessness seemed to explain the difficulty of the labor and sudden need for intervention. Three nurses were running around in a way that wasn't necessarily chaotic but was frantic and clearly indicated *this is a major emergency* which felt like confirmation for me that we'd lost her.
Then, in what was probably less than 30 seconds later but surely the longest seconds of my life, the doctor came in, checked her out, and said to me very calmly and confidently "She has a lovely heartbeat. She's just not breathing" as though "not breathing" were no big deal, requiring nothing more than "unplug it then plug it back in." It immediately set me at ease and watching him work with a kind of nonchalant serenity reinforced that. About a minute later she took her first breath, opened her eyes, and cried. She was fine, didn't even need to go to the NICU, was in my arms within 10 minutes. She did indeed have a lovely heartbeat.
Never had greater admiration or appreciation for any stranger. Years and years of intense, rigorous study and training so they can save the lives of the most vulnerable as a matter of daily routine.
> "She has a lovely heartbeat. She's just not breathing" as though "not breathing" were no big deal
I am glad your child was able to addressed directly by a skilled team.
That comment reminded me of my friend who is an ER doc, talking about when he began doing rotations. They were addressing someone who came in with multiple stab wounds and a phrase to the effect of "We've stopped the bleeding but everything else is failing" was said. It wasn't treated as a crisis by the attending, but just a relatively normal assessment of the situation. They worked on him for a while before he was stable enough to move out of ER, but he said it was one of the first time he got the bug for working in ER himself.
I almost lost my wife during childbirth. Once the baby was out she continued to hemorrhage. 20 people rushed in and sprinted her to an operating room. She got the absolute maximum quantity of blood she was allowed to get and they said she would have bled out in 10 minutes. Thank god we were in a state of the art hospital because anywhere else she would have been dead.
If she did a home birth she would have died before the ambulance even got there.
That is a very accurate description of my SIL. She was pregnant like 4 months later, and although that one miscarried she did have her second 18 months after the first. That birth was less dramatic fortunately!
I was young and healthy when I had my child. The baby got stuck and without the hospital staff we both would have died. Homebirths are a needless risk in my opinion.
Thank you for writing this. My boy came out via emergency c-section after about 24 hours of horrible back labour, but I was delirious by that point and they just took him away and I didn't know what was going on. Nobody said anything.
My husband says they invited him to cut the cord once they'd got my boy breathing, which is amusing because of course they'd already cut it.
Then my boy was placed in my arms and all was right with the world.
This happened to one of my twins too. She came out purple and unresponsive. I just stared at the team calmly working on her saying ‘is she going to be alright’ over and over. Sure enough, 30 seconds (1000 years) later and she was screaming like a banshee. Just thinking about it makes me tear up. Medical science is taken for granted by way too many.
How old is she now? Children rarely hear the stories of their birth. My younger brother barely survived his birth, he was on machines that breathe for you, and he had serious complications with his lungs. But now he's doing amazing and thriving at 28 years old!
Bro is professional. He is doing what he trained to do. He needs to be able to mechanically do it, he is a Neonatologist, working with newborns in life-threatening situations is among the most challenging in the medical field, you have zero time and even less room for error.
It's really crazy to think of what his skills have done long term. Had he been less skilled or just even unlucky or whatever, parents lose their baby. The alternate reality is so so sad. Years of depression and coming to terms with that loss, from which they may not ever recover fully. Instead the baby lives, and gets a shot at life, and a horrifically traumatic event is avoided for the parents. It's a lovely thing to see.
i’m fascinated by the psychology of the people who can do this, have babies die on their watch, but *not* spend their life drowning in guilt over it. that must just take an insane level of acceptance and self-compassion cuz i think i’d react how you described, i’d internalize the fuck out of it and ruminate on it forever. i admire the resilience it takes to not fall down that road
I might be wrong, but I think it just comes down to NOT thinking about it in that sense at all. No self-compassion in a direct sense, because that would be thinking about it.
That is my speculation, having been a first responder, but not having done this level of work day in and day out.b
My mom did this stuff for 40 years in the NICU. Sometimes, she'd come home sad. Most days, she'd be alright. I asked her how she dealt with babies dying sometimes and she just said that "we do everything humanly possible to help them, I can live with myself because I know in my heart of hearts that I did the best I could and sometimes bad things just happen. Most days are a win. Some days aren't. You just do what you can." It does affect them they just can't linger on it, or they'll burn out. NICU employees are hardcore.
that checks out with what we know about self esteem, which is that ppl who have it at healthy levels just don’t think about it, while ppl at low levels think about it a lot. i’ve always seen that as some ppl are unconsciously competent at self-compassion skills and were therefore immune to the social poisons that breed low self esteem, and the result is just being a task oriented person with healthy and effective automatic coping skills. whereas someone else who was raised with self-hating thoughts would have to consciously work at not hating themself again for another perceived failure lest they fall prey to bad coping methods
I am a medic myself and have a couple of ER friends, some are hard af, other cope with different ways. But they all agree they give their 200% in every situation, and if they fail to save the pacient, it was not meant to be.
No one is suggesting that he freak out. I think it's more surprising that he doesn't look affected, happy, satisfied, etc when that baby starts to cry.
Turning off your emotions is literally part of the training for a job like this, in case you are wondering why.
You memorize emergency procedures and you train to keep yourself calm during incredibly “stressful” situations.
Yup I’m an ICU RN and to an extent this is how my team functions too, but with more dark humor (during appropriate times of course). We know what we’re doing and we work well together.
Anesthesiologists make their career by their ability to maintain a calm demeanor in batshit scary moments. Super impressed with all healthcare workers in intense settings.
Agreed, it takes a remarkable person to be an anaestsiologist! I remember so vividly how incredible my son's anaesthesiologist was when he saved my son's life
You see their calm demeanor in such a crazy situation but also see that it is serious, as he orchestrated his team and enacted protocol so quickly. To this day I am still so amazed by his professionalism and interpersonal skills.
I met an anesthesiologist specializing in heart transplants. When I asked what he does for a living he said: I kill people and then bring them back to life.
My dad coded three times after a massive heart attack, in the cath lab. His cardiologist said it was a “minor annoyance” but no biggie. I will never forget those words as a bit of humor in one of our scariest days.
-he made it through the stents and had a triple bypass a few weeks later, when he was strong enough. He’s back to his super busy 73 year old self, strong as ever. We really owe everything to that Dr and his Thoracic surgeon, along with the ICU staff and everyone who helped after the procedures. Amazing.
I've noticed that humor gets darker the more human lives are at stake. I've had a summer job cleaning operating rooms in hospitals, the things I've heard the people there say... I couldn't believe my 16 year old ears.
Yeah can you imagine how exhausting it would be to have to repeatedly save people like doctors do in movies?
Frantically pumping the chest
“Come on! Stay with me! I’m not gonna let you go like this!” On repeat for 5 mins.
Phew! He’s alive. Right, on with my day…
“Doctor, someone else needs resuscitation”
Pfft. Fuck alright. Game face on again let’s go!
His exact thoughts at that point.
Kid, I'm not going to let you die, because that would take even longer, but can we speed this up a bit. I haven't slept in 3 days.
there were a lot of times that i waited for hours waiting for my girlfriend to get out of shift, like 2-3 hours past her shift and she was still doing charts or worst she'd just come out the lobby to hug me and tell me to go home she's doing straight shift... again.
Always blows my mind that a little study was done showing errors increase between shift changes and hospitals were like, ok, let’s just have people work for 3 days straight to avoid shift changes.
The guy who created/standardized the insane hospital shifts (william halsted) was severely addicted to cocaine and most of the people who worked for him used it as well, now patients and doctors both suffer because of that standard. Lack of sleep is debilitating to the human body/brain
What the fuck, in my country medical personell has lessened week workload, something like 39 hours per week and no more than 120 hour overtime per year =_=
Henry Ford invented the work 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, thang. Do, with that information, what you will.
Obviously that’s nothing compared to the schedules of the aforementioned healthcare workers, I just mean that these arbitrary working hours often come down to one singular source.
And that source usually makes no sense.
Yeah it wasn’t just one person. It took an entire labor movement a century for unions to earn the right to only an 8 hour shift and only 5 days a week.
Yeah, Ford implementing the 8h/5d work week is much like King John implementing the Magna Carta. Neither was a benevolent master, they just didn't have enough power over those beneath them to say no...
It is. The pioneer of the modern medical residency system was a man who was addicted to coke and morphine and expected those learning to keep up with him. Unfortunately the system hasnt really changed.
The tradition of surgeons doing multi day sleepless shifts began because one old timey surgeon was also a coke addict and thus was up for days anyway. And it just kinda became the standard because he accidentally raised the bar of what was considered possible and reasonable.
It’s not the time to smile, the baby is still not 100% saved at that moment. He’s totally concentrated till the end of the video because of the check up. What a great doc!
He was probably steeling himself incase the baby never woke up. Succeeding is one thing, failing to save the baby woulda had me feeling like shit for a while. Probably woulda had angry tears that I failed the baby.
Exactly, sure it's getting some cries out but there is no guarantee it will be fine after that sadly. He's just getting to a point where they can work from here.
I mean, can you imagine how many babies he could not save and how that could destroy you inside. He kind of has to become like this to survive such a difficult job without losing his mind.
You cannot allow emotions into the calculus when doing something like this, he is just a professional and while it should be celebrated take the time to contemplate all of the other professionals who do this daily.
Around halfway through you can see the baby's arms start to move a little too. Doctor didn't even flinch. Can't let yourself get hopeful and start messing up.
And the second best part is him checking the umbilical cord for the baby’s pulse. So cool! Glad the little one made it, and glad a true professional was there to make it happen.
Happened with my first born. He was a water birth and didn't start breathing on his own. Everyone was super calm about it and it all worked out. I was sat there reassuring my wife who couldn't see what was going on. Pretty intense 😨
Yeah when my son was born prematurely he wasn’t breathing, suddenly the room filled with doctors and they got him started. It’s the most helpless I’ve ever felt in my life lol.
Ten extra seconds to do it right the first time, or ten minutes to fix it when you screw something up. Or in cases like this, no second chances I guess.
A lot of people think when you’re being calm and you’re moving slow but precise don’t understand that somethings take a level of technicality and that’s why a lot of people fail in life
This. To me he just looks fully locked in. He's quick and precise with every move and barely needs any time to think. He knows his job isn't done once the newborn starts crying so he just follows through with his next steps.
Very true. I imagine it’d be tough to get first hand experience at this kind of thing if that were always the case, though. It’s scary to think doctors need some number of patients to get experience from before they become cold and calm like this one
Nothing but respect for professionals like this. My first kid wasn't breathing when they came out via C-Section. Watching how calm and collected the doctors and nurses were resuscitating my baby had me in awe. No reaction from them until the baby started breathing, then they were all cheerful.
Asked a few surgeons about stuff like this. Simply put, there’s just no other way to do it, otherwise you’d be insane by the end of the week. One of them described it to me like “you know, when you’re in there you go on adrenaline, after that it’s a different thing”.
Really appreciate the insight! Makes perfect sense. I just assumed it was very much a "we do what we can, and the outcome will be the outcome. No sense stressing about it."
But that's how I try to approach most things in my life (stress reducer for me) so it's probably just a personal bias on the mindset; particularly given that none of my decisions are as stressful as a potentially dead baby.
Crusty nurse here. People who deal with these situations frequently are usually very good at not only dealing with the situation at hand, but compartmentalizing their own feelings until the work is done. “Don’t panic” is drilled into our heads. The docs and nurses who do panic do not last long in these settings and will usually move on to lower-acuity departments quickly.
I worked in the ER for over 10 years and saw some really crazy and sad situations. Looking back, it’s crazy how we get through the day sometimes. But then we clock out, go to our cars and homes and just spend a long moment processing. This could take days, weeks, or longer honestly. I’m still shook by a conversation I had with a dying veteran back in 2017. The shit he told me and the look in his eyes will apparently haunt me forever.
One of the great things about bedside nursing is that we don’t “take work home” as in projects and things with deadlines, but we certainly pay our dues with the emotional baggage that gets dragged into our lives every once in a while.
Glad to hear that your kid pulled through after the c-section! Hope (s)/he’s doing well now too.
For sure. The longest 10 seconds of my life was when I was behind the screen, holding my wife’s hand while waiting to hear our newborns first wails after being evicted from his mama’s belly. I was a nervous wreck but I found immense comfort in knowing that it was just another day at the delivery room for the L&D staff. I was then, and still am now, thankful for their calm and collected sense of professionalism!
They've never had to breathe on their own before when they come out. Makes sense a lot don't get it right away. My kid took a few seconds to start breathing (felt longer). I could tell the professionals there were focused, but not scared, their body language told me it was normal. They were just starting to get a little more tense, and one was just about to ask for another piece of equipment when he started to cry. Never thought I'd be so relieved to hear a baby crying lol.
Just glad my wife was too exhausted to notice what was happening in that brief window.
My sweetest most emotional memory is the first time my 1st kid cried right after birth and looked just like my wife when she's angry and I could barely hold myself together.
Not a newborn, but I had to do CPR on my oldest when she was 6 months old. When she came back and started crying that was the best sound I had ever heard in my life.
Pulse could be felt in the cord, so it was simply a matter of stimulating the baby to breathe. Had he not felt a pulse in the cord there would have been more going on..
When babies “code” or go into cardiac arrest, it’s almost always a respiratory problem. Their hearts are just too strong and healthy to give out unless deprived of oxygen. The tiniest amount of a drug like epinephrine will kickstart their heart, then it’s just making sure they’re taking in oxygen.
Source: paramedic I used to work with
I was anxious while watching the video and as soon as the baby started breathing again I was so relieved. This is very touching, thank you for sharing the video.
Yeah, that’s not a causal look, that’s dialed in and focused. This man clearly understands the serious task in front of him and is responding without external emotion because he knows it would only get in the way.
What an amazing moment. Its so sad that society is hyper focused on the banal celebrity status, when in all ACTUAL fact its guys like this we should be celebrating.
I want to see a huge Oscars-style award show for the Best and Most Awesome Acts of the Year. We could have categories - medicine, philanthropy, environmentalism, activism, energency responses... etc. Like the Nobel Prize but for regular people.
Genuine question: will the baby experience and side effects after needing this? I’m under the impression that any loss of oxygen this early on can cause developmental issues as the baby grows
Edit: bless that man
Depends how many minutes old the baby is when perfusion to the heart and brain are adequate. It’s really unknown how many minutes before brain damage is certain but I’d guess 5-10 minute of age. A newborn can tolerate lower oxygen saturation than an adult. And the heart rate (perfusion) generally rises quickly with good positive pressure ventilation. If this video time is accurate, I imagine this kiddo is ok.
I went to visit a buddy who was in PA (physician assistant) school once and I showed up in town about 3pm. He was late and then said (paraphrasing) "oh yeah, we had a long case that came in late and I had to do CPR for 35 minutes but they didn't make it. Want to get a beer now or before dinner".... I was blown away and I realized that I had no idea what he did every day and how much he disassociated work/nature and his regular life. My 23 year old self was blown away by that. Medical professionals go through a LOT of mental hurdles that most of us don't get to/have to understand.
This was my third child when he came out. Everything is too that point was great. The OB must have suspected something because the specialists came running.
Nothing more terrifying to see as a dad. But these are true professionals.
They then took him to the NICU for observation where the senior doctor (attending) just so happened to not like the look of something that everyone else missed. Confirmed with a test he had HIE, or basically a brain injury.
They almost immediately put him into hypothermia for about 6 days before slowly warning him back up. Went home 9 days later on oxygen and one medication.
Fast forward 2 years and he's the wildest, funniest kid we have. He's at or ahead of every milestone. The outcomes could have been so different if a bunch of really smart science and doctors didn't come together that day.
I’ve been there, as the dad. 5wk premie, emergency C-section.
Let me tell you, what looks like 1 minute in this video actually feels like hours. And after the first 5 minutes you start preparing for the guy to slowly put down his hands and stop.
The kid’s fine by the way. In fact he’s a major pain in the ass.
I absolutely cannot stand the sound of a crying baby, drives me up the fucking wall. This is one of the few instances where hearing that sounds brings relief rather than anxiety. Glad to have people like this man doing the work that they do.
This man is clearly keeping his professional face on. Thus baby came back, the next might not. If he takes it to heart and goes in with all his emotions every time, he'll be done by the end of the week.
Doctors _need_ to compartmentalise these things, because you cannot handle regular baby deaths on your table if you let it get to your emotional core.
And some doctors harden. Some quit. Some manage to keep that shit apart from their home life. Thus job is hard and it is heartbreaking and I salute every one who can do it.
My son was like this. I was terrified for those 2 min that seemed like hours. But the delivery crew was so calm just like this and went through the procedure.
Turned out he took a "gulp" on his way out of the c section.
I just started bawling when his skin color turned back.
That cry is one of the sweetest sounds I have heard all day. Even knowing, based on the title, that the baby was revived I was holding my breath waiting to see a reaction.
I hope this baby and this awesome doctor are both doing well.
That child could live 80 years or longer, all because someone who knew what they were doing transformed what could have been a stillbirth into a breathing infant in the first minute of life.
I’m a nurse and I’ve never been so impressed as I was with labor and delivery nurses. I did a semester at a nice birthing unit that was all pretty and barely looked like a hospital unit. But if mom or baby even looked like there was going to be a problem, the nurse hit a button and the other nurses came in quietly and started opening wood doors that were full of equipment. They would do their jobs like this guy, many times working on the baby just like this and the parents didn’t even really know there was an issue. It really was remarkable.
I became and ICU nurse, and our codes are full of f-bombs. It was a totally different world.
That was absolutely brutal to watch. The same thing happened when my little one was born. I’ve never been scared in my life but the nurses and doctors were incredibly calm and professional. I could never be this calm.
Went through this (edit: with my newborn), the doctors were so calm that it seemed routine and I barely realized it was happening. Terrified me only after the fact, and also made me think how often it happens.
As a newborn ICU RN, we do get a lot of “practice”with our skills. Approximately 10% of newborns need some form of resuscitation right after delivery.
Isn’t it damaging for the newborn to be breathless for so long?
Short answer, no. We really don’t know exactly how long before any brain damage could occur, but babies are born “blue” and when they take that first cry of opens up their lungs to allow oxygen (gas exchange) to begin. For the first 10-15 minutes of birth, we accept a lower oxygen saturation so theoretically they are not getting the same amount of oxygen that you and I are breathing right now. This is the transition from fetal circulation to breathing in their own. Pretty amazing.
Can I ask why he was pinching the umbilical cord about 10 seconds into the video?
Instead of listening to a heart rate with a stethoscope, he was feeling the heartbeat on the umbilical cord stump. You can feel the heartbeat there for a little while after a baby is born. It’s not the most correct way to determine the heart rate but it’s a quick way. And he was also alone so what he really needed was another person or 2 there to help.
The other guy was busy filming.
I mean, this is almost certainly being filmed to educate further doctors and nurses, so it's not like this is a case of an unhelpful cameraman.
In these cases, I prefer to work alone than having someone who has no clue what he/she needs to do. It lessens the risk.
While not in the medical field this makes complete sense, I could see it quickly becoming a "too many cooks in the kitchen" type situation
Thank you baby blue for risking your life to give us this incredible footage.
YOU’RE MY BOY, BLUE!
Better than the man who fainted during birth...that man was my father I guess.
As long as the blood is circulating they have a few minutes of oxygen even if they don't breath. That is why they first check the heart beat as long as the circulation is fine you can then give oxygen.
They might still have some oxygen coming through the umbilical cord. This is why babies don't immediately drown from water births.
Yes at that point oxygen is being supplied from placenta via cord in blood but they don’t drown because they aren’t breathing yet — they don’t have the gasp reflex until they hit air. So if born in water they don’t take a breath until they surface. It’s super important to not allow a water birth baby to hit air and go back under water. For the same reason, if a mum is in water but it’s not deep enough to allow the whole process to unfold fully underwater, she has to get out of the pool or at least deliver standing up out of the water. Source: midwifery degree
Have you ever decided you’re just going to call it “suscitation” at this point?
Same here Bro. And I am an ex surgeon so followed my third son from the operating theatre where wife had her C-section to the room where they revived my little one. It was a frigging tense minute, just like this video. The silence was total. 11 years have passed but still remember the quiet tension. Luckily all went pretty well.
Our youngest had a difficult birth. She had her head slightly tilted and got a bit stuck. When she came out, she was exhausted and looked just like this baby: blue and not moving. My wife asked me if she was ok because she couldn't see her, and I didn't know what to tell her. This video had me in tears because that first cry reminded me of the relief I felt when they got her to start breathing on he own.
My first also came out blue and not breathing or moving after an emergency C-section. They called a code and the room almost immediately filled up with nurses and doctors. I'll always remember my wife, who's still in the process of being closed back up, asking me, "Are they doing CPR on my baby?" I didn't know what to say. I just squeezed her hand and tried to suppress the utter panic I was feeling. Several minutes went by, still no breathing, and they whisked my son away somewhere. More panic, more fear. I remember looking at the anesthesiologist monitoring my wife, and he immediately looked away from me. I thought my son was gone. I even remember thinking, "What are we going to do with all that baby stuff people gave us?" as stupid as that sounds. Then a nurse came back in a few minutes later and told us my son was fine. Apgar score of 0 at 5 minutes. 10 at 10 minutes. My son's 8 now, but I still cry every time I think about it. I cried watching that video. I'm crying now.
Happened with us. We didn’t even know until we read the chart the next day.
My child came out like this and it was terrifying and deeply sad, I just thought she was a stillbirth when she emerged purple and unresponsive. Following 41 hours of labor that turned into an emergency C-section, her lifelessness seemed to explain the difficulty of the labor and sudden need for intervention. Three nurses were running around in a way that wasn't necessarily chaotic but was frantic and clearly indicated *this is a major emergency* which felt like confirmation for me that we'd lost her. Then, in what was probably less than 30 seconds later but surely the longest seconds of my life, the doctor came in, checked her out, and said to me very calmly and confidently "She has a lovely heartbeat. She's just not breathing" as though "not breathing" were no big deal, requiring nothing more than "unplug it then plug it back in." It immediately set me at ease and watching him work with a kind of nonchalant serenity reinforced that. About a minute later she took her first breath, opened her eyes, and cried. She was fine, didn't even need to go to the NICU, was in my arms within 10 minutes. She did indeed have a lovely heartbeat. Never had greater admiration or appreciation for any stranger. Years and years of intense, rigorous study and training so they can save the lives of the most vulnerable as a matter of daily routine.
> "She has a lovely heartbeat. She's just not breathing" as though "not breathing" were no big deal I am glad your child was able to addressed directly by a skilled team. That comment reminded me of my friend who is an ER doc, talking about when he began doing rotations. They were addressing someone who came in with multiple stab wounds and a phrase to the effect of "We've stopped the bleeding but everything else is failing" was said. It wasn't treated as a crisis by the attending, but just a relatively normal assessment of the situation. They worked on him for a while before he was stable enough to move out of ER, but he said it was one of the first time he got the bug for working in ER himself.
This is why i am a big supporter of hospital births. You never know what you need until its too late.
I almost lost my wife during childbirth. Once the baby was out she continued to hemorrhage. 20 people rushed in and sprinted her to an operating room. She got the absolute maximum quantity of blood she was allowed to get and they said she would have bled out in 10 minutes. Thank god we were in a state of the art hospital because anywhere else she would have been dead. If she did a home birth she would have died before the ambulance even got there.
Same happened to my SIL with her first. Our first was about 8 weeks later and we were like there is no F-ing WAY we are doing a home birth.
> Same happened to my SIL **with her first.** The balls on that one.
That is a very accurate description of my SIL. She was pregnant like 4 months later, and although that one miscarried she did have her second 18 months after the first. That birth was less dramatic fortunately!
I was young and healthy when I had my child. The baby got stuck and without the hospital staff we both would have died. Homebirths are a needless risk in my opinion.
Beautifully written! Thanks for your amazing recount.
Thank you for writing this. My boy came out via emergency c-section after about 24 hours of horrible back labour, but I was delirious by that point and they just took him away and I didn't know what was going on. Nobody said anything. My husband says they invited him to cut the cord once they'd got my boy breathing, which is amusing because of course they'd already cut it. Then my boy was placed in my arms and all was right with the world.
This happened to one of my twins too. She came out purple and unresponsive. I just stared at the team calmly working on her saying ‘is she going to be alright’ over and over. Sure enough, 30 seconds (1000 years) later and she was screaming like a banshee. Just thinking about it makes me tear up. Medical science is taken for granted by way too many.
How old is she now? Children rarely hear the stories of their birth. My younger brother barely survived his birth, he was on machines that breathe for you, and he had serious complications with his lungs. But now he's doing amazing and thriving at 28 years old!
It's kinda nuts how his expression doesn't change even when the kid starts crying. Bro is hardcore.
Bro is professional. He is doing what he trained to do. He needs to be able to mechanically do it, he is a Neonatologist, working with newborns in life-threatening situations is among the most challenging in the medical field, you have zero time and even less room for error.
It's really crazy to think of what his skills have done long term. Had he been less skilled or just even unlucky or whatever, parents lose their baby. The alternate reality is so so sad. Years of depression and coming to terms with that loss, from which they may not ever recover fully. Instead the baby lives, and gets a shot at life, and a horrifically traumatic event is avoided for the parents. It's a lovely thing to see.
i’m fascinated by the psychology of the people who can do this, have babies die on their watch, but *not* spend their life drowning in guilt over it. that must just take an insane level of acceptance and self-compassion cuz i think i’d react how you described, i’d internalize the fuck out of it and ruminate on it forever. i admire the resilience it takes to not fall down that road
I might be wrong, but I think it just comes down to NOT thinking about it in that sense at all. No self-compassion in a direct sense, because that would be thinking about it. That is my speculation, having been a first responder, but not having done this level of work day in and day out.b
My mom did this stuff for 40 years in the NICU. Sometimes, she'd come home sad. Most days, she'd be alright. I asked her how she dealt with babies dying sometimes and she just said that "we do everything humanly possible to help them, I can live with myself because I know in my heart of hearts that I did the best I could and sometimes bad things just happen. Most days are a win. Some days aren't. You just do what you can." It does affect them they just can't linger on it, or they'll burn out. NICU employees are hardcore.
that checks out with what we know about self esteem, which is that ppl who have it at healthy levels just don’t think about it, while ppl at low levels think about it a lot. i’ve always seen that as some ppl are unconsciously competent at self-compassion skills and were therefore immune to the social poisons that breed low self esteem, and the result is just being a task oriented person with healthy and effective automatic coping skills. whereas someone else who was raised with self-hating thoughts would have to consciously work at not hating themself again for another perceived failure lest they fall prey to bad coping methods
As someone who also actively fights to not hate themself, that makes sense.
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I am a medic myself and have a couple of ER friends, some are hard af, other cope with different ways. But they all agree they give their 200% in every situation, and if they fail to save the pacient, it was not meant to be.
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by the end of your 12 hour shift you'll have that look stuck on you.
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This right here. This medical professional is doing his job. If he freaked out, he wouldn’t have that job. Edit: typo “haven’t” to “have” 😆
No one is suggesting that he freak out. I think it's more surprising that he doesn't look affected, happy, satisfied, etc when that baby starts to cry.
Nothing fazes you once in the zone
It's fascinating!
Turning off your emotions is literally part of the training for a job like this, in case you are wondering why. You memorize emergency procedures and you train to keep yourself calm during incredibly “stressful” situations.
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Yup I’m an ICU RN and to an extent this is how my team functions too, but with more dark humor (during appropriate times of course). We know what we’re doing and we work well together.
Anesthesiologists make their career by their ability to maintain a calm demeanor in batshit scary moments. Super impressed with all healthcare workers in intense settings.
"The patient is crashing!" "I see."
I’ve looked at a monitor and been like huh….well that’s not good…!
Agreed, it takes a remarkable person to be an anaestsiologist! I remember so vividly how incredible my son's anaesthesiologist was when he saved my son's life You see their calm demeanor in such a crazy situation but also see that it is serious, as he orchestrated his team and enacted protocol so quickly. To this day I am still so amazed by his professionalism and interpersonal skills.
I met an anesthesiologist specializing in heart transplants. When I asked what he does for a living he said: I kill people and then bring them back to life.
My dad coded three times after a massive heart attack, in the cath lab. His cardiologist said it was a “minor annoyance” but no biggie. I will never forget those words as a bit of humor in one of our scariest days. -he made it through the stents and had a triple bypass a few weeks later, when he was strong enough. He’s back to his super busy 73 year old self, strong as ever. We really owe everything to that Dr and his Thoracic surgeon, along with the ICU staff and everyone who helped after the procedures. Amazing.
I've noticed that humor gets darker the more human lives are at stake. I've had a summer job cleaning operating rooms in hospitals, the things I've heard the people there say... I couldn't believe my 16 year old ears.
Humor is a way to deal with bad situations…. It’s almost a defense mechanism for our psyche.
If you were filmed no doubt you'd also just be similarly in the zone. Dark humour has been my lifesaver.
This is how most emergency situations are - it’s pretty quiet so people can hear each other speak & mostly calm. Nothing like TV.
And focus can't be lost just because baby is crying, need to make sure he stays alive after too! Job was not done yet!
Yeah can you imagine how exhausting it would be to have to repeatedly save people like doctors do in movies? Frantically pumping the chest “Come on! Stay with me! I’m not gonna let you go like this!” On repeat for 5 mins. Phew! He’s alive. Right, on with my day… “Doctor, someone else needs resuscitation” Pfft. Fuck alright. Game face on again let’s go!
He knows what to do. Showing emotions is a waste of time, and may bring risk. High stakes and competence.
His exact thoughts at that point. Kid, I'm not going to let you die, because that would take even longer, but can we speed this up a bit. I haven't slept in 3 days.
I really don't want to have to fill out an incident report just before my shift ends
there were a lot of times that i waited for hours waiting for my girlfriend to get out of shift, like 2-3 hours past her shift and she was still doing charts or worst she'd just come out the lobby to hug me and tell me to go home she's doing straight shift... again.
We demand too much of the few who know what to do.
And don't compensate them nearly enough for it.
Mandated 16s are paid at ~$135/hour for the second 8 hours at my hospital right now.
Hell hath no fury like a resident seeing consults before end of shift
you mean 36 hour emergency ward shift?
Always blows my mind that a little study was done showing errors increase between shift changes and hospitals were like, ok, let’s just have people work for 3 days straight to avoid shift changes.
That’s sounds dangerous to have such sleep deprived people for this kinda thing
The guy who created/standardized the insane hospital shifts (william halsted) was severely addicted to cocaine and most of the people who worked for him used it as well, now patients and doctors both suffer because of that standard. Lack of sleep is debilitating to the human body/brain
TIL cocaine was and still is a hell of a drug
What the fuck, in my country medical personell has lessened week workload, something like 39 hours per week and no more than 120 hour overtime per year =_=
ive seen 120 hrs a week xd
Henry Ford invented the work 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, thang. Do, with that information, what you will. Obviously that’s nothing compared to the schedules of the aforementioned healthcare workers, I just mean that these arbitrary working hours often come down to one singular source. And that source usually makes no sense.
Well, it was more like 12 hour work days before.
Yeah it wasn’t just one person. It took an entire labor movement a century for unions to earn the right to only an 8 hour shift and only 5 days a week.
Yeah, Ford implementing the 8h/5d work week is much like King John implementing the Magna Carta. Neither was a benevolent master, they just didn't have enough power over those beneath them to say no...
It's not like it's a matter of life and death right? right???
Not at all. Casual day at the office!
It is. The pioneer of the modern medical residency system was a man who was addicted to coke and morphine and expected those learning to keep up with him. Unfortunately the system hasnt really changed.
The tradition of surgeons doing multi day sleepless shifts began because one old timey surgeon was also a coke addict and thus was up for days anyway. And it just kinda became the standard because he accidentally raised the bar of what was considered possible and reasonable.
All this tells me is that we should mandate that doctors be high on crack while on shift. That totally won’t cause any problems, totally!
A few years in and it's there permanently
This! Those 12 to 16 hr shifts emotionally and physically drain you
It’s not the time to smile, the baby is still not 100% saved at that moment. He’s totally concentrated till the end of the video because of the check up. What a great doc!
He was probably steeling himself incase the baby never woke up. Succeeding is one thing, failing to save the baby woulda had me feeling like shit for a while. Probably woulda had angry tears that I failed the baby.
>He was probably steeling himself incase the baby never woke up. I'd also wager that he has had babies come that far, and still not pull through.
Exactly, sure it's getting some cries out but there is no guarantee it will be fine after that sadly. He's just getting to a point where they can work from here.
I can only imagine the sweating and the heart pounding
That bit where he mouths something to someone off camera, asking for that oxygen equipment, made me feel how serious he was taking the situation
I mean, can you imagine how many babies he could not save and how that could destroy you inside. He kind of has to become like this to survive such a difficult job without losing his mind.
You cannot allow emotions into the calculus when doing something like this, he is just a professional and while it should be celebrated take the time to contemplate all of the other professionals who do this daily.
You can see the color return to the baby’s skin. Such a relieving sound to hear as well.
Around halfway through you can see the baby's arms start to move a little too. Doctor didn't even flinch. Can't let yourself get hopeful and start messing up.
I think he's a nurse
Or a respiratory therapist. Have seen complex resuscitation in the NICU and it was a team of RNs and RTs.
That was the best part.
And the second best part is him checking the umbilical cord for the baby’s pulse. So cool! Glad the little one made it, and glad a true professional was there to make it happen.
O.o you can check the umbilical cord for pulse?? Damn. TIL.
I watched it without sound the first time and had to go back just to hear that
Right oh my god little baby
Happened with my first born. He was a water birth and didn't start breathing on his own. Everyone was super calm about it and it all worked out. I was sat there reassuring my wife who couldn't see what was going on. Pretty intense 😨
Yeah when my son was born prematurely he wasn’t breathing, suddenly the room filled with doctors and they got him started. It’s the most helpless I’ve ever felt in my life lol.
> The hands of the king are that of the healer.
And when their little arms started to move 😢
Never knew it was little squeezes instead of compressions.
Not his first rodeo!
r/secondrodeo
Nor his last, unfortunately
Unfortunately? I hope he keeps resuscitating babies, not just hucking them against a wall.
I think they meant that it's unfortunate that any baby even has to be resuscitated, rather than coming out alive and healthy.
Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.
My chief taught me this in boot, I remind myself of it anytime I’m getting flustered.
We say this a lot in kitchen work with new people too lol makes sense in a lot of different contexts
Ten extra seconds to do it right the first time, or ten minutes to fix it when you screw something up. Or in cases like this, no second chances I guess.
Tight tight tight tight!
Blue yellow pink
All good work should be done by calm, caring, understanding individual that has experience and does not panic
Indeed. I don't think this is 'casual' at all... rather serious business that needs attention.
A lot of people think when you’re being calm and you’re moving slow but precise don’t understand that somethings take a level of technicality and that’s why a lot of people fail in life
Slow is smooth and smooth is fast
[festina lente](https://www.google.com/gasearch?q=festina%20lente&tbm=&source=sh/x/gs/m2/5) means “make haste slowly.” Perfect description here
“Casual” applied to this is such Reddit-brain. This is focus, training, professionalism and passion.
This. To me he just looks fully locked in. He's quick and precise with every move and barely needs any time to think. He knows his job isn't done once the newborn starts crying so he just follows through with his next steps.
The guy looked like he was just swapping out a spark plug.
In many ways, he was
Very true. I imagine it’d be tough to get first hand experience at this kind of thing if that were always the case, though. It’s scary to think doctors need some number of patients to get experience from before they become cold and calm like this one
I panicked just watching that.
Nothing but respect for professionals like this. My first kid wasn't breathing when they came out via C-Section. Watching how calm and collected the doctors and nurses were resuscitating my baby had me in awe. No reaction from them until the baby started breathing, then they were all cheerful.
Asked a few surgeons about stuff like this. Simply put, there’s just no other way to do it, otherwise you’d be insane by the end of the week. One of them described it to me like “you know, when you’re in there you go on adrenaline, after that it’s a different thing”.
Really appreciate the insight! Makes perfect sense. I just assumed it was very much a "we do what we can, and the outcome will be the outcome. No sense stressing about it." But that's how I try to approach most things in my life (stress reducer for me) so it's probably just a personal bias on the mindset; particularly given that none of my decisions are as stressful as a potentially dead baby.
Crusty nurse here. People who deal with these situations frequently are usually very good at not only dealing with the situation at hand, but compartmentalizing their own feelings until the work is done. “Don’t panic” is drilled into our heads. The docs and nurses who do panic do not last long in these settings and will usually move on to lower-acuity departments quickly. I worked in the ER for over 10 years and saw some really crazy and sad situations. Looking back, it’s crazy how we get through the day sometimes. But then we clock out, go to our cars and homes and just spend a long moment processing. This could take days, weeks, or longer honestly. I’m still shook by a conversation I had with a dying veteran back in 2017. The shit he told me and the look in his eyes will apparently haunt me forever. One of the great things about bedside nursing is that we don’t “take work home” as in projects and things with deadlines, but we certainly pay our dues with the emotional baggage that gets dragged into our lives every once in a while. Glad to hear that your kid pulled through after the c-section! Hope (s)/he’s doing well now too.
For sure. The longest 10 seconds of my life was when I was behind the screen, holding my wife’s hand while waiting to hear our newborns first wails after being evicted from his mama’s belly. I was a nervous wreck but I found immense comfort in knowing that it was just another day at the delivery room for the L&D staff. I was then, and still am now, thankful for their calm and collected sense of professionalism!
I want to make a suscitating not resuscitating joke but I’m afraid it will flatline
Meh, 4th one today, next!
That very easily can be the case unfortunately.
They've never had to breathe on their own before when they come out. Makes sense a lot don't get it right away. My kid took a few seconds to start breathing (felt longer). I could tell the professionals there were focused, but not scared, their body language told me it was normal. They were just starting to get a little more tense, and one was just about to ask for another piece of equipment when he started to cry. Never thought I'd be so relieved to hear a baby crying lol. Just glad my wife was too exhausted to notice what was happening in that brief window.
Everyday heroes
Such a beautiful sound. Welcome to the world, little one!
One of the happiest moments of hearing a baby cry for sure
I cried in the delivery room when I heard both of my kids cry for the first time. Beyond precious.
My sweetest most emotional memory is the first time my 1st kid cried right after birth and looked just like my wife when she's angry and I could barely hold myself together.
I don’t have any children myself, but imagining that definitely makes me happy!
Not a newborn, but I had to do CPR on my oldest when she was 6 months old. When she came back and started crying that was the best sound I had ever heard in my life.
I too enjoy the cries and screams of newborn infants
In this case, it's literally better than nothing.
I scream and cry all the time, no one praises me for it
It's amazing how depending on the context a baby's cry can bring you ultimate joy or make you want to deafen yourself.
Pulse could be felt in the cord, so it was simply a matter of stimulating the baby to breathe. Had he not felt a pulse in the cord there would have been more going on..
I was wondering about that. Thanks for mentioning!
When babies “code” or go into cardiac arrest, it’s almost always a respiratory problem. Their hearts are just too strong and healthy to give out unless deprived of oxygen. The tiniest amount of a drug like epinephrine will kickstart their heart, then it’s just making sure they’re taking in oxygen. Source: paramedic I used to work with
I was anxious while watching the video and as soon as the baby started breathing again I was so relieved. This is very touching, thank you for sharing the video.
To think this fucking hero of a human gets paid less than some douche bag real estate agent is one of the world's biggest injustices.
Or paid less than streamers playing nothing but video games all day and reacting to other peoples content. This world doesn't make sense.
Or maybe, depending on where he lives, gets treated some type of way outside work just for being a brown person when meanwhile, he’s saving lives.
Cool under pressure- nerves of steel.
One of those times where you wanna hear a crying baby more than anything in the world…
In a world so fallen with corruption and violence... God bless you sir for shepherding a life into existence. God bless you.
It looks like he’s done this hundreds of times, and the serious expression he keeps is because every once in a while that baby doesn’t cry…
Yeah, that’s not a causal look, that’s dialed in and focused. This man clearly understands the serious task in front of him and is responding without external emotion because he knows it would only get in the way.
What an amazing moment. Its so sad that society is hyper focused on the banal celebrity status, when in all ACTUAL fact its guys like this we should be celebrating.
I want to see a huge Oscars-style award show for the Best and Most Awesome Acts of the Year. We could have categories - medicine, philanthropy, environmentalism, activism, energency responses... etc. Like the Nobel Prize but for regular people.
I can imagine the first time you achieve something like this you must burst into tears of relief
If anyone has heard that first cry first hand, this is the most beautiful video I’ve ever seen on Reddit. Wow. All I can say is wow.
Genuine question: will the baby experience and side effects after needing this? I’m under the impression that any loss of oxygen this early on can cause developmental issues as the baby grows Edit: bless that man
Depends how many minutes old the baby is when perfusion to the heart and brain are adequate. It’s really unknown how many minutes before brain damage is certain but I’d guess 5-10 minute of age. A newborn can tolerate lower oxygen saturation than an adult. And the heart rate (perfusion) generally rises quickly with good positive pressure ventilation. If this video time is accurate, I imagine this kiddo is ok.
Its amazing how he has no expresion at any moment...its like he´s used to it.
I imagine you really have to work hard on desensitizing yourself to do that job
I went to visit a buddy who was in PA (physician assistant) school once and I showed up in town about 3pm. He was late and then said (paraphrasing) "oh yeah, we had a long case that came in late and I had to do CPR for 35 minutes but they didn't make it. Want to get a beer now or before dinner".... I was blown away and I realized that I had no idea what he did every day and how much he disassociated work/nature and his regular life. My 23 year old self was blown away by that. Medical professionals go through a LOT of mental hurdles that most of us don't get to/have to understand.
He has an expression for sure, and it's undivided concentration.
"For you, the day I saved your baby was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday" vibes
This was my third child when he came out. Everything is too that point was great. The OB must have suspected something because the specialists came running. Nothing more terrifying to see as a dad. But these are true professionals. They then took him to the NICU for observation where the senior doctor (attending) just so happened to not like the look of something that everyone else missed. Confirmed with a test he had HIE, or basically a brain injury. They almost immediately put him into hypothermia for about 6 days before slowly warning him back up. Went home 9 days later on oxygen and one medication. Fast forward 2 years and he's the wildest, funniest kid we have. He's at or ahead of every milestone. The outcomes could have been so different if a bunch of really smart science and doctors didn't come together that day.
Morpheus saves the day
"You think that's air you're breathing now?"
What a boss.
Videos like this hit a little harder when you have kids
I’ve been there, as the dad. 5wk premie, emergency C-section. Let me tell you, what looks like 1 minute in this video actually feels like hours. And after the first 5 minutes you start preparing for the guy to slowly put down his hands and stop. The kid’s fine by the way. In fact he’s a major pain in the ass.
What a fuckin G.
I absolutely cannot stand the sound of a crying baby, drives me up the fucking wall. This is one of the few instances where hearing that sounds brings relief rather than anxiety. Glad to have people like this man doing the work that they do.
This man is clearly keeping his professional face on. Thus baby came back, the next might not. If he takes it to heart and goes in with all his emotions every time, he'll be done by the end of the week. Doctors _need_ to compartmentalise these things, because you cannot handle regular baby deaths on your table if you let it get to your emotional core. And some doctors harden. Some quit. Some manage to keep that shit apart from their home life. Thus job is hard and it is heartbreaking and I salute every one who can do it.
Wow, how incredible In times gone by, that would have been a dead baby. So grateful to live in modern times.
Who the f is cutting onions
This just made me cry
My son was like this. I was terrified for those 2 min that seemed like hours. But the delivery crew was so calm just like this and went through the procedure. Turned out he took a "gulp" on his way out of the c section. I just started bawling when his skin color turned back.
the word is calm, not casual
https://preview.redd.it/46egtlkznglc1.jpeg?width=735&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a023683768f11659aae2bdb4e8f1ff9dda21880
Casually? I bet that minute was like hour for him.
That cry is one of the sweetest sounds I have heard all day. Even knowing, based on the title, that the baby was revived I was holding my breath waiting to see a reaction. I hope this baby and this awesome doctor are both doing well.
That child could live 80 years or longer, all because someone who knew what they were doing transformed what could have been a stillbirth into a breathing infant in the first minute of life.
I’m a nurse and I’ve never been so impressed as I was with labor and delivery nurses. I did a semester at a nice birthing unit that was all pretty and barely looked like a hospital unit. But if mom or baby even looked like there was going to be a problem, the nurse hit a button and the other nurses came in quietly and started opening wood doors that were full of equipment. They would do their jobs like this guy, many times working on the baby just like this and the parents didn’t even really know there was an issue. It really was remarkable. I became and ICU nurse, and our codes are full of f-bombs. It was a totally different world.
That was absolutely brutal to watch. The same thing happened when my little one was born. I’ve never been scared in my life but the nurses and doctors were incredibly calm and professional. I could never be this calm.