A young woman came into the ER, intoxicated by booze and stoned on several drugs. She looked rather unhappy, so I probed into her motives.

Dr. Pezzi: Why did you do it?

Patient: I'm trying to kill my baby.

Dr. Pezzi (having not had much sleep in a couple of days): What baby?

Patient (pointing to her protuberant abdomen partially camouflaged by the bed sheets): This baby.

Even for a hardened ER doctor, such a cold-hearted action was shocking. I paused for a moment and stared at her, and she stared back with a little bob of her head as if she were saying, “So what?”

Dr. Pezzi: Why do you want to kill your baby?

Patient: ‘Cause I don't want it, that's why.

Dr. Pezzi: I figured that. Why don't you want the child?

Patient: I don't want my parents to find out. I'm not married.

Dr. Pezzi: I see.

Patient: So what can I take to have a miscarriage?

Dr. Pezzi: I'm not going to give you a tutorial on what drugs can induce an abortion.

Patient: But the nurse said you'd help me.

Dr. Pezzi: She was speaking generically.

Patient: (perplexed) What?

Dr. Pezzi: I meant that the nurse was speaking in a general sense, that I am here to help you.

Patient: So what ya going to do for me?

Dr. Pezzi: You are beyond the point at which an abortion is permissible, so I'm going to have you seen by an obstetrician and a psychiatrist.

Patient: I'm not nuts.

Dr. Pezzi: I never said you were. However, you are obviously in a great deal of turmoil, and the psychiatrist can help you with that.

Patient: The only way he could help me is if he marries me. My parents will kill me if I have a child before I'm married.

Dr. Pezzi: Why don't you marry your boyfriend?

Patient: Ain't got one.

Dr. Pezzi: Who is the father of the baby?

Patient: I can't marry him, that's for sure.

Dr. Pezzi: Why is that?

Patient: He's my brother.

Return to the story list