Breakdown Births Doctor Driveway Calls
By Lisa Reisman on June 30, 2020
Shamala Seville-Ferguson, holding her newborn Gianna, walked out to her driveway, where an American Medical Response vehicle was parked.
There was no emergency. The Community Health Care Van, repurposed in late April as a mobile clinic to provide Covid-era postpartum visits to mothers and their newborns, had broken down earlier in the week. AMR had provided a temporary back-up vehicle for this mid-June visit.
The baby was fine. But the advanced practice nurse, Sharon Joslin, found Seville-Ferguson had dangerously elevated blood pressure.
“You don’t feel that bad,” Joslin explained, but it’s a “nightmare scenario” that can lead to a stroke or cardiac event.
Seville-Ferguson, a certified nursing assistant, has two other kids. Her husband works late hours. She has no child care. Even in normal times, “to get anywhere with a baby takes a lot of preparing,” she said. “With everything that’s been going on now, I just didn’t want to take them out anywhere.”
Read more via the New Haven Independent >>