Sometimes we experience cases in the intensive care unit that are very bad and very beautiful at the same time – it’s a question of perspective. It was the same with a young woman in her early 20s. She came to us for monitoring, shortly before that a thrombosis was removed from her under anesthesia: Our patient had suffered a stroke. Since then, the right side of her body has been paralyzed, and she also had a speech disorder, aphasia. As if that weren’t drastic enough – a stroke at such a young age is extremely rare – there was another aspect: the woman had only become a mother two weeks ago and was breastfeeding her newborn baby until the incident.
Despite half of her facial paralysis, you could tell from her facial expressions that she was excited, almost panicked, when she woke up from the anesthesia. Sure, if you imagine that you suddenly find yourself in the hospital, want to speak or gesticulate, but it’s just not possible – many stroke patients react in a similar way to the young woman.
But when you then consider that she suddenly couldn’t be with her little baby anymore and breastfeed it – that’s a cruel thought. I am a mother myself and can still remember the first few weeks after the birth of my son. I couldn’t have imagined if I couldn’t have been with him at this particularly important time.
But suddenly my colleague, who was responsible for the young mother that day, had an idea: Because we were driving fewer beds than usual due to a lack of staff, we had a patient room free – why not move the woman to this room and it make it possible for her to stay there with her husband and baby? Our bosses agreed. And from the gynecology came the OK that she can breastfeed despite the short anesthesia, she should pump only once and discard the breast milk to be on the safe side. So nothing stood in the way of the plan.
Intensive care specialist Pola Gülberg from the Ebersberger district clinic.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
As quickly as the man with their baby arrived at our intensive care unit, he must have been overjoyed at my colleague’s suggestion. When he entered the room and placed the child in his wife’s arms, she relaxed. The young family was together again.
After three days, the patient could already be transferred to the normal ward. There, too, it was possible that she was accommodated in a family room with her husband and baby. Now that the Christmas season is approaching, this story comes back to me more often – at a time that is particularly important for many families. Because we managed to bring a family together despite a heavy blow of fate.
Pola Gülberg is an intensive care nurse. In this column, the 38-year-old talks about her work at the district clinic in Ebersberg every week. The collected texts are below sueddeutsche.de/thema/Auf Station to find.