Rodah Deng and her sons welcome home baby Arok.
Rodah Deng knows this firsthand. At about
11 p.m. on June 15 — 10 days before her due
date — her contractions started. This was her
sixth child, so she knew she could stay at home
a bit and rest before heading to the hospital.
The next morning, she sent her older kids off
to summer school and her boyfriend off to work.
“I told him to go, because the pain still wasn’t
bad,” she says. “But then at 10, the pains started
coming quickly.”
When her 18-year-old son got home from
school, he drove her to Methodist Richardson
Medical Center. Rodah called her boyfriend from
the emergency room, and he raced to the hospital.
“The doctor and nurses came in to the room, and
I said, ‘Be ready, the baby is on the way,’” Rodah says.
“I arrived at the hospital at 11:40-something and
delivered at 11:51. Everything happened fast.”
So fast that Rodah’s OB-GYN couldn’t get to the
hospital in time. Fortunately, Methodist Richardson has
an obstetric (OB) hospitalists program, and hospitalist
Charlie Jaynes, MD, FACOG, was able to step in and
deliver Rodah’s daughter, Arok, without complication.
24/7 service and support
Dr. Jaynes says OB hospitalists improve patient safety
for both mothers and infants.
“Delivery and other emergencies can happen
any time of the day,” Dr. Jaynes says. “We can be
immediately available to take care of any situation.
We’re even capable of resuscitating infants, if needed.”
In Rodah’s case, because this was her sixth
delivery and the labor came on so quickly, she was
particularly at risk for postpartum hemorrhaging. Had
complications arisen, an OB hospitalist could have
saved her life.
“You need someone board certified available at all
times to head off this and other dangerous situations,”
Dr. Jaynes says.
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Also a hospitalist with Methodist Richardson,
Dr. King says the hospital is ahead of its time, as
OB hospitalists will soon be the standard of care in
labor and delivery.
“You always have a physician in house,” Dr. King
says. “While physicians will do 95 percent of their
own deliveries, sometimes they’re out of town or in
surgery or even delivering another baby. They can’t be
in two places at the same time.
“It’s comforting to a woman to know that she has a
board-certified provider attending to her who can call
any consultants that are needed for her care.”
Safe and sound
Rodah is one woman grateful that Methodist
Richardson established an OB hospitalist program to
make her delivery both easier and safer.
“I could not do it by myself,” she says. “God is the
one who knows everything. He had this day as the day
that the baby would come, and He knew who needed
to be here. It’s good that Methodist Richardson has
people here for an emergency like mine.”
If one thing can be said for the world of labor and delivery, it’s that it’s unpredictable.
“A doctor can come in and check on the patient, and she’s only 5 centimeters
dilated,” says Lisa King, MD, FACOG. “And then five minutes later, she has to push. In
obstetrics, you can go from 0 to 60 in a few minutes.”
Methodist Richardson Medical Center
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Fall 2014
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