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Guiding light for grieving parents
Taking care of babies is never easy, especially
those born prematurely or with major illnesses. Even tougher is trying to
comfort parents whose babies die soon after birth.
But that is exactly the task for nursing officer Chan Lai-ming, who has
been taking care of babies since graduating almost 20 years ago. She is
team leader of the United Christian Hospital's neonatal intensive care and
special care baby unit, established in 1995.
"Even though we cannot save the children, the parents still have
to live on," Chan said. "Our job is to make the [difficult]
transitional period easier."
The methods used to comfort parents may not be earth-shattering - Chan
would advise the grieving parents to write down what they want to say to
the babies as an emotional outlet, encourage them to record songs or
blessings to the babies while telling them to have more contact with the
babies while they are still alive.
If the babies cannot make it, Chan will encourage the parents to take
pictures with the deceased baby as, quite often, it could be their first
child.
Chan said on average, fewer than 10 babies die prematurely at her
hospital each year. Yet this does not make her job less important.
"It is a job without many resources, and others would easily
forget about it since there are few such cases," Chan said. "But
our job is important because the parents are those who are left behind.
There is little support for these parents or the families that are faced
with the tragedy."
What the job has taught her is the strength of babies. "About
seven, eight years ago, there was this baby, born after only 24 weeks of
pregnancy, whose condition suddenly went south after a couple of
months," she recalled. "He was grayish blue in color, with a
greatly bulging stomach. We thought he couldn't make it. Yet he lasted for
nearly a week before he died."
Chan added: "We thought the babies fought hard to allow their
parents to express their love toward them."
For her work, Chan entered the Hospital Authority's hall of fame this
year after receiving the outstanding staff and teams award.
Also among award recipients are the Geriatric Hip Fracture Acute
Management Team from Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Led by orthopaedics and
traumatology consultant Shen Wan-yiu, the team helped 70 percent of
elderly patients with broken hips to have surgery within two days of
admission, a feat only accomplished by three hospitals locally. 2008-04-26 |
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