Pressure from the ongoing viral pandemic has forced a change in how we see our relationships and our connection to those around us both in our personal and professional lives. For Dr. Elsie Nguyen, cardiothoracic radiologist and Vice-President of the Canadian Society of Thoracic Radiology (CSTR), that meant making the urgent decision to step in and care for the newborn of someone who has helped Dr. Nguyen with her own childcare needs – her nanny Lola Saliko.
Lola required an emergency Caesarian section to deliver her baby boy, due to a worsening COVID-19 infection that threatened her life as well as the life of her baby, as first reported in the Toronto Star earlier this summer. Lola had just begun her maternity leave at 8 months pregnant and a day before her last day working with Dr. Nguyen. Her husband Flori came down with a fever and eventually tested positive for COVID but had mild symptoms. Days later, Lola also became symptomatic with fever and cough and eventually tested positive for COVID. Her symptoms rapidly progressed over the course of the next few days, and she was struggling to breathe. “I could not get any air in my lungs”, she said. In the middle of the night, she and her husband called for an ambulance and they were brought to Mount Sinai Hospital. She was terrified at this point, more concerned for the health and well-being of her baby than for her own.
“I never saw my baby, actually,” she told Bruce Arthur of the Star. “I just gave birth, and they took the baby away. I was intubated right after. I never woke up.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Nguyen was examining a series of x-ray images taken of the lungs of COVID positive pregnant women in Toronto ICUs. She stopped on an image of a particularly severe case. The patient’s name was familiar, and it dawned on her that she was looking at the COVID-ravaged lungs of her nanny.
“I definitely think being a radiologist and seeing Lola’s x-ray made me feel the trauma even more because I had reported so many chest x-rays in people who did not survive COVID-19.” Dr. Nguyen said. “I have seen tragedy repeatedly. Lola might have been another tragedy among many. I was terrified that Lola would not survive her COVID/ARDS-acute respiratory distress syndrome and her baby would be motherless.”
For some, what happened next was far beyond a radiologist’s duty, but Dr. Nguyen believed she was in a position to help. “I don’t know if you believe in karma,” she told the Star. “If you’re met at a crossroads where you could do one thing to help or look the other way. If you make the wrong choice, it could haunt you for life.” She phoned Lola’s husband, Flori immediately to arrange care for the newborn.
The baby’s delivery was successful, but the newborn needed oxygen and was eventually stabilized in the neonatal ICU at Mount Sinai Hospital under the expert care of their doctors and nurses. Lola was still intubated and ventilated and had to remain in the hospital ICU in a medically induced coma. After a week in the neonatal ICU, baby boy Lorik was ready to be discharged from hospital. Dr. Nguyen accompanied Flori to Mount Sinai Hospital to pick up baby Lorik. Dr. Nguyen had to wait outside in the waiting room because she was not the baby’s mother. Driving separately, Flori and Dr. Nguyen met back at her house where Flori handed over Lorik. During this time, Dr. Nguyen watched several You Tube videos to refresh her memory on how to bottle feed newborn babies and how much formula was average consumption. It had been over five years since she held a newborn baby in her arms. Dr. Nguyen reached out to friends for baby supplies as all her newborn baby supplies were already given away to family and friends. She took time off work to take care of the newborn. The first night out of the hospital was trying and restless for her and the baby, she says, but they progressively got better as she got better at reading Lorik’s signals.
“Taking care of baby Lorik helped me pause and reflect on my own life. We talk about essential and non-essential businesses. What was essential to me and my life? What was truly important and how do I want to live my life going forward?” Dr. Nguyen said. “Many of us made changes during this pandemic because it gave us time to think and reflect while in lockdown. I decided to move away from lofty and sometimes overly ambitious goals and to start setting smaller goals for myself. I decided to put less pressure on myself in general and just be in the moment to enjoy time with family and friends. I decided to simplify my life, to declutter things I no longer enjoyed and to spend more time with my kids doing simple things like playing cards, riding our bikes, and cooking together.”
Several days had passed before Lola awoke from being sedated and intubated in the ICU. She was told that Lorik was doing well in his temporary home. He was healthy and safe with Dr. Nguyen. Like her baby, Lola made a remarkable recovery under the expert care of the doctors and nurses who cared for her. Lola was discharged safely after nearly 2 weeks in hospital and went straight to Dr. Nguyen’s house for a moment most often shared from a hospital bed, holding her newborn baby for the first time.
“Ultimately,” Dr. Nguyen said, “I learned that human connection is what brings me true happiness and to put my energy into nurturing relationships which had been neglected due to the chaos and trauma of the pandemic.”
This incredible act of kindness should be applauded.