Small Great Things(118)
“So you were Davis’s nurse all day Friday?”
“Yes.”
“Did you perform any routine procedures on the infant?”
Corinne nods. “At around two-thirty I did the heel stick. It’s a standard blood test—it wasn’t done because the baby was sick or anything. All newborns get it, and it goes off to the state lab for analysis.”
“Did you have any concerns about your patient that day?”
“He was still having trouble latching on for breast feeding, but again, that’s not extraordinary for a first-time mom and a newborn.” She smiles at the jury. “Blind leading the blind, and all that.”
“Did you have any conversation with the defendant about Davis Bauer when she came on shift?”
“No. In fact she seemed to ignore him completely.”
It is like an out-of-body experience—sitting right here, in plain sight, and hearing these people discuss me as if I am not present.
“When did you next see Ruth?”
“Well, she was still on duty when I came back on shift at seven A.M. She’d pulled an all-nighter, and was scheduled to leave at eleven A.M.”
“What happened that morning?” Odette asks.
“The baby was being circumcised. Usually the parents don’t like to see that happen in front of them, so we take the infant to the nursery. We give them a little bit of sweeties—basically sugar water—to calm them down a little, and the pediatrician does the procedure. When I wheeled in the bassinet, Ruth was waiting in the nursery. It had been a crazy morning, and she was taking a breather.”
“Did the circumcision go as planned?”
“Yes, no complications. The protocol is to monitor the baby for ninety minutes to make sure there’s no bleeding, or any other sort of issue.”
“Is that what you did?”
“No,” Corinne admits. “I was called for an emergency C-section for one of my other patients. Our charge nurse, Marie, accompanied me to the OR, which is her job. That meant Ruth was the only nurse left on the floor. So I grabbed her and asked her to watch over Davis.” She hesitates. “You have to understand, we’re a tiny hospital. We have a skeletal staff. And when a medical emergency happens, decisions are made quickly.”
Beside me, Howard scribbles a note.
“A stat C-section takes twenty minutes, tops. I assumed I’d be back in that nursery before the infant even woke up.”
“Did you have any concern about leaving Davis in Ruth’s care?”
“No,” she says firmly. “Ruth’s the best nurse I’ve ever met.”
“How long were you gone?” Odette asks.
“Too long,” Corinne says softly. “By the time I got back, the baby was dead.”
The prosecutor turns to Kennedy. “Your witness.”
Kennedy smiles at Corinne as she walks toward the witness stand. “You say you worked with Ruth for seven years. Would you consider yourself friends?”
Corinne’s eyes dart to me. “Yes.”
“Have you ever doubted her commitment to her career?”
“No. She has pretty much been a role model for me.”
“Were you in the nursery for any of the time that a medical intervention was taking place with Davis Bauer?”
“No,” Corinne says. “I was with my other patient.”
“So you didn’t see Ruth take action.”
“No.”
“And,” Kennedy adds, “you didn’t see Ruth not take action.”
“No.”
She holds up the piece of paper Howard has passed to her. “You stated, and I quote, When a medical emergency happens, decisions are made quickly. Do you remember saying that?”
“Yes…”
“Your stat C-section was a medical emergency, right?”
“Yes.”
“Wouldn’t you also say that a newborn suffering a respiratory seizure qualifies as a medical emergency?”
“Um, yes, of course.”
“Were you aware that there was a note in the file that said Ruth was not to care for this baby?”
“Objection!” Odette says. “That’s not what the note said.”
“Sustained,” the judge pronounces. “Ms. McQuarrie, rephrase.”
“Were you aware that there was a note in the file that said no African American personnel could care for the baby?”
“Yes.”
“How many Black nurses work in your department?”
“Just Ruth.”
“Were you aware when you grabbed Ruth to fill in for you that the baby’s parents had expressed the desire to prohibit her from caring for their newborn?”
Corinne shifts on the wooden seat. “I didn’t think anything was going to happen. The baby was fine when I left.”
“The whole reason for monitoring a baby for ninety minutes after a circumcision is because with neonates, things can change on a dime, isn’t that right?”
“Yes.”
“And the fact is, Corinne, you left that baby with a nurse who was forbidden from ministering to him, correct?”
“I had no other choice,” Corinne says, defensive.
“But you did leave that infant in Ruth’s care?”