A long time ago but not so far away, lived a girl and a boy very much in love. Gino was tall and handsome with rich brown hair and eyes, good strong Italian looks. Elana was elegant with long sable hair, a classic Greek beauty, her once slender figure swollen with their first child. Only nineteen, she became concerned when she noticed some blood and called her doctor. Her flustered young husband took her straight to the emergency room. After filling out the necessary paperwork, she was examined by the nurse and labor was induced by the doctor’s order. Yet the doctor never saw her and the nurse was the only one running the emergency room that night.

Labor progressed under the influence of the drugs dripping into her veins, one painful contraction after the next. Elana cried out, begging Gino to do something. He ran to get the nurse, who was too busy to come. The pain intensified and their helplessness was magnified by the sheer lack of professional attention. Elana didn’t know how to do this. She hadn’t been taught how to breathe, unprepared to give birth four weeks early. Gino didn’t know how to help her. He held her hand and brushed the damp hair from her face, but there was nothing he could do to relieve her of her pain or himself of the anxiety. [Read more…] about