Message #161558

[Bianca]

'Don't leave that baby'



Goodrich wasn't with his wife, also a professor at NMU, when things started to go wrong at Marquette General Hospital. He was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where Moses was under observation after being born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck.

"She was very adamant. She said, 'Don't you leave that baby,' " he said.

Two hours later, with Moses doing well, a nurse told Goodrich his wife wasn't. In fact, she was about to be transferred to the intensive care unit. Soon, a doctor told Goodrich to prepare for the worst.

"I said, 'Could she die?' And they said, 'Yes, you have to prepare for the worst.' "

Susan fell into a coma as doctors tried to figure out what was wrong. They did exploratory surgery, worked on getting her blood clotted and even did an emergency hysterectomy. She stabilized and crashed three times. The fourth time was fatal.

Amniotic fluid embolisms are the fifth leading cause of maternal death in the United States, affecting about one in every 30,000 births. They end in death about 80% of the time.

And so Susan Goodrich, described as fiery and witty, a great conversationalist, died.