Salem Falls

1969

New York City

That morning, while drinking her imported Sumatran coffee, A

Surely that was worse than what was happening now.

She had been on Astor Place shopping for the most darling christening outfit when her water broke. Two weeks early. The ambulance told her she couldn’t get to Lenox Hill-the hospital where she’d pla

“Fine, lady,” one said. “Then drop the kid right here.”

A band of pain started at her groin, then radiated out to every nerve of her skin. “Do you know,” she gasped, “who my husband is?”

But the paramedics had already set the ambulance screaming crosstown.

Through the tiny window over her feet, A

Drug addicts and homeless people were splashed along the sides of the building like decorative puddles; A

St. Vincent’s? Being born in a tree was a better pedigree than this.

As the paramedics loaded the stretcher off the ambulance, she realized she had to fight in earnest. But the moment the wheels of the gurney slapped onto the pavement, she felt shock rocket through her. Her spine was shattering-she could feel the vertebrae at the base cracking, she was certain of it. In her womb, where she’d been carrying a baby, there was now a huge fist. It twisted like a puppeteer’s, pulled so hard and so long that she writhed, at odds in her own body.

I am going to die, she thought.

When she opened her mouth, all she could say was, “Get Joseph.”

She was admitted before the shifty-eyed drunks and the mothers with six sniffling children hanging like ornaments from their limbs. The curtained room smelled of alcohol and cleaning fluids, and A

“I want to wait for my husband,” A

“I don’t think your baby’s got the same idea,” a nurse murmured, coming up behind A

She and Joseph had toured the rooms at Lenox Hill, with their silk bedding and faux fireplaces. Just around the corner was their favorite Italian restaurant. Joseph had promised to bring her pe

Suddenly, there was a crash as a new patient was wheeled into the cubicle beside A

A

“Are you having contractions?” The question came from the other side of the drape, the one A

“Sí, los tiene,” the woman moaned.

“Looks like she’s bleeding. Could be a placenta previa. Call OB.”

A

Her doctor glanced up from a spot between her legs. “I need you to push,” he said. “Now, A

She bore down with all her strength, squeezing her eyes so tight the room swam about her, and the words that filtered through the curtain came thin and quivering.

“No pueda!”

“It’s coming . . . get me a gown and gloves, for Christ’s sake.”

“BP’s falling. She’s ninety over palp.”

“Ah, damn. She’s bleeding out.”

“Respire, Mrs. Velasquez. No empuje.”

“Primero salvo mi bebé! Por favor, salvo mi bebé!”

A

“Here we go,” the doctor said.

“Ringer’s lactate, wide open. Type and cross her. Where the hell is OB?”

“We’ve got to do this now. Ahora, Mrs. Velasquez. Empuje.”

“Pedi’s here.”

“About time. Take the baby.”

“Él se llamo Joaquim!”

“Yes, Mrs. Velasquez. That’s a lovely name.”

“One more push,” the nurse said to A

“Suction the infant . . . I want him intubated and bagged with one hundred percent oxygen . . .”

“No quiera morir . . .”

“Pulse ox ninety-eight. Heart rate’s one-fifty.”

A high whine of machinery. “The mother’s bleeding out.”

“Massage her uterus. Hard. Harder!”

“Hang pitocin, and two units of O neg on the rapid infuser. IV fluids wide.”

“Where the hell is OB? Put in a central line.”

A

“You’re not going to,” the woman said.

“One more push, A

She clenched her teeth, pressed down, and suddenly her son came into the world.

“The baby’s abdomen is filling with air.”

“You intubated the esophagus. Do it again.”

“Pulse ox sixty-three. Heart rate seventy.”

“Put in an umbilical line. Give him one cc of atropine, point three of epi, and three milliequivalents of bicarb.”

“Draw a blood gas.”

“She’s coding!”

“He’s in v-fib!”

Groggy, A

On the other side of the curtain, two separate wars were being fought. One was to save the life of a woman who’d been beaten to near death by her husband. The other was to allow her child to have any kind of a life at all. From time to time, the curtain billowed in toward A

She could identify two voices now, the doctor taking care of Mrs. Velasquez, and the doctor taking care of the woman’s newborn.

“Starting chest compressions.”

“Charge the paddles to three hundred fifty watts . . . intubate her!”

Thump, thump, thump-the sound of electricity jolting to jump-start a body.

“Give her another one mil of epi.”

“Give him another point three of epi.”

Thump.

“Asystole.”

And a moment later, “Asystole.”

Then the two doctors, speaking simultaneously. “Call it.”

A

The clock on the wall ticked, an animal grinding its teeth. Very slowly, A