30 Something Baby Doc

I stayed at the hospital late last night working on my case list. My buddy(K) who just moved back into town with his wife and kids called me around 8pm to go out for drinks (he had a hard day at work and wanted to bitch). I had a private patient (a nurse) who called to tell me she was in labor and coming to the hospital. I called K back and let him know I could do dinner but no drinks. Of course he gave me shit (he's a physician too). My patient arrived, when I examined her she was 2 cm dilated, I let her walk for a while and told her I would re-check her in 2 hours.

I should have just continue with my case list, but I decided to join K downtown for a quick dinner. I came back to re-examine the patient and she was 4cm dilated....cool. I admitted her for active labor. I knew it would take her awhile to deliver, so I bagged my caselist and went home for some sleep and told the nurses to page me when she was closer to delivering. Of course I get paged at 4am and I'm told she 9 cm dilated. I rushed to the hospital believing I may not have enough time.

I arrive at the hospital and entered the room. The night shift attending physician was standing infront of my patient with gown and gloves on ready to catch the baby. I put on some gloves, thanked the night attending for covering for me and told her I would take over at this point. She gestured as if she didn't want to move. I repeated " thanks again, I'll deliver the infant now". She slowly backed away looking disgusted (this physician tends to be a little bit quirky). The entire situation was very weird. After the night attending left the room, my patient looked at me and whispered," thank you"

She went on to deliver a healthy baby boy. dad cut the cord:-)