My husband and I were so excited when the contractions started, or maybe I should say that I was excited after the pain had passed. I've felt worse pain, so this didn't really bother me. We got to the hospital but my doctor was nowhere to be found. Instead, Dr. Carriage informed me that he was filling in for my doctor who was called away for a family emergency. I was a little apprehensive but I was offered no other choice.
Later that night, I gave birth to a little girl. She was tiny and red with a head full of brown hair. The doctor took her from me and my husband after we held her because he said she was having some problems. We grew concerned and my husband asked, "what kind of problems."
The doctor wasn't very forthcoming. Eventually, he told us that she was having breathing problems, her tongue was purple. We found that odd since she seemed to be fine while we were holding her. I asked him if I could try to feed her and the doctor said that he would need to put in a feeding tube. Something in my brain went off - a small alert. This isn't right, I remembered thinking, something's off.
And, how right I was.
I asked about feeding her again and he repeated what he said before about the feeding tube. I then asked him to go ahead and place it because I didn't want her to starve to death. He told me that he couldn't place the tube because she was dying. I didn't believe him at that point. She was healthy when my husband and I took turns holding her. I told him that he was a liar and that I wanted to see my baby. He cut my IV and told me nastily that I would see how pain feels because he wasn't going to give me any more medication.
At that point, pain medicine be damned, I was determined to see my daughter. Nothing was going to stop me, so I rose from my bed, an hour after giving birth, and walked up to this guy and looked him the eyes. My husband called in security and told them he was calling the police on this doctor, because he wouldn't help our child and because he was threatening me. The security guard made me get back in bed and detained the doctor for further questioning and another doctor was assigned to us.
The police came and arrested Dr. Carriage. That wasn't his real name. The new doctor came in and she explained everything to us and gave me my pain medicine back, although I wasn't concerned about my pain at the moment. All I wanted was my daughter. My husband went and got her and gave her to me. She was fine. No feeding tube was needed.
Apparently, Dr. Carriage had moved around the US picking women with long, complicated medical histories to target. He would tell them their child was dying or dead and that they couldn't see their child, then, take the child home for his wife to raise. They had done this successfully six times. His wife couldn't have children. My daughter was going to be the latest in a long line of kidnappings. This doctor showed no remorse. He told the police that he would do it again because he'd do anything for his wife. I asked about the children and the police officer said that someone was in the process of finding their birth parents and returning them home.
My husband grabbed my hand. I held our daughter while he held me, and we were happy.
