[livi]

This is not one of my 'bad day at work' threads. However, I have the night shift tonight and I was just called urgently to a delivery room. I was presented with a story about this baby just delivered a few minutes ago. He had breathing difficulties and the heart would stop beating periodically.

I approach the baby on the table and start assisting ventilation (and a lot of other medical stuff) and I immediately notice several typical sign with a mongoloid baby. Neither the staff nor the parents had mentioned this.

I finished the resuscitation successfully and the baby was now breathing spontaneously and had a good heart rate - but looking pretty mongoloid.

Now this is a syndrome that immediately after birth can be very difficult to diagnose with certainty. Many children may look rather odd the first day and you do not want to alarm the parents. The next day it may be obvious that the baby is perfectly healthy!

Being in the middle of the night and seeing as nobody else mentioned it, I chose to NOT say anything, but wait until tomorrow morning to have another look.

Comments?