鈥溌y煤deme doctora!鈥 Her urgent tone and panicked face left nothing to interpretation. She arrived in labor the night prior and was rushed to have a caesarean delivery. Now, she said, her newborn was intermittently not breathing.
This was not her first child. It was her rainbow baby. Her first died shortly before the due date, in her belly.
I was caring for mother-infant dyads. She was on the general postpartum floor, rooming-in with her newborn to promote bonding. This hospital, touted for its excellent patient care, was why she had come here. Unfortunately, patients with language discordance often face additional bias (both implicit and explicit) based on perceived differences in ethnicity and culture.