Reunion after 57 years: He was an intern, she was a premi that was not expected to survive

Dr. Donald Craig was a trainee at the old General Hospital in St. John in an icy night in January 1968, when a doctor sought help from him.

The doctor was supposed to give a child at the nearby St. Joseph Hospital, but a woman was also going to give birth to the general. The child was a three -month premature time and was still expected to live.

“can you handle this?” The doctor asked.

Craig had previously distributed infants, but only under the supervision of a doctor or a resident. So he caught a book on human labor and started reviewing it.

Then a nurse came and told him that the child was breech – the doctor had not mentioned anything. So he went back to his book. A few hours later, a nurse took her to the delivery room.

“She shouts at me, ‘Craig, she is ready, she is pushing and she is crying. Let’s go.”

Craig had to break the child’s goose from his way, but he asked for the child to give it, yet it was hoping that it was still congenital.

And then the child started crying.

“My heart flew faster than the child’s heart, and mother started crying, ‘Is my child crying?” ,

The child was alive and the ideas of Craig quickly turned into its existence. He weighs two pounds and had three months premature time. His possibility of existence was not great.

He knew that the general had hired only one pediatrician, who was special in the care and premature births of the newborn child – and when needed during the storm she stayed in the hospital overnight.

Craig said that doctors appeared soon, wearing a bathroom on their pajamas. He looked at him and asked, “Did you distribute it to yourself? Give me a child.”

He said that the doctor “let the mother kiss her child and said,” We are only taking the child under the hall. We are going to recover. ” Then she disappeared. ,

To date, Craig says that the doctor’s efficient care was important for the existence of the child, which was in the hospital for a month before the release. Craig examined him every day and gave updates to his mother, who was not allowed to stay with him in the hospital.

“I gave the child, but (doctor) had skills, and was trained to handle him from there,” Craig said.

A caution managed secret

After more than 55 years, the Craig retired after a decades long career in family and emergency medicine. He has served as the Physician of New Breanswick and St. John Medical Society and President of Surgeon College.

He also established the New BRARSVAV Medical Education Foundation, which provides scholarships to the province’s medical students who agree to establish exercises here – an important part of the efforts to increase the number of doctors in New Breanswick.

In April, the Foundation presented Craig the Champions of Care Founder Award at St. John Trade and Convention Center at a Gala. The person who presented him with the award was Krista Barzik, who was already given as an intern decades ago at that time, which was during the January snow storm.

It was a planned reunion, until Barsky was called on stage, the Foundation was kept secret from Craig.

Craig said, “I did not hear half of his speech because I was very surprised.” “Then I got a copy of his speech and I printed him to put it on my wall.”

Barczyk and his daughter looked at the Craig’s table to hug him later and to do a chat. Craig said that he could see the influence of a multi-generation on his family.

He said, “We not only saved his life, we saved the lives of his children and their children.”

For decades, Barziq has told her birth story, but she actually feels the impact standing next to her on stage.

“If it was not for him, then no one would have been in my life. I would never have been in love. I would never have played the game, I wouldn’t have never married, I would never have married, I would never have married, I would have three children and have grandparents, I would have been able to do grandfather,” he said.

“You can tell your birth story 100 times, but when you stand with the man who originally saved your life … then it really kills you very hard.”

Her mother knew that it could be a stilging

He is also grateful to the woman who gave her life – her mother Dorothy Filmore.

Filmore went to the hospital in 1968 that day as she was in great pain. She was only six months pregnant and was very concerned about miscarriage.

Filmore said she also knew that it would be a birth birth, and that Craig went to the hospital library to study this process. So when he heard the cry of the child in the delivery room, his happiness became angry with the concern that his daughter could not remain.

“I didn’t know if she was going to live or dying,” Filmore said, “So I just stayed in the mindset until she started gaining weight.”

For the next month, it was waiting for that kind – to gain a little weight every day until he was ready to leave the hospital on five pounds and 12 ounces.

‘I can’t remove this story from my head’

The story of Barziq’s birth began again due to the keen interest of David Ryan and Natalie Boys, an executive director of the Medical Education Foundation, and fellow staff members.

As part of the preparation of the awards Gala, Craig participated in a video interview for communication material for the incident. He asked which patient’s stories were standing the most in his 43 -year career and he started telling them about Barzik.

“It hit a raga with me. I was about four or five months pregnant at that time and just thought,” I couldn’t get it out of my head, “Long said.

“It got stuck with me and it got stuck with my team to the point where I said,” What if we can find this child? ” ,

It took eight weeks, but he found Barzik and invited him to the event. She was living in Memramcook and working in Monkton for a tech company. She has three children, three grandchildren, and marrying again in a fall.

Several family members, including his mother and elder brother, came to the event in St. John.

The story of Barczyk and Craig, and their reunion on stage, had a profound impact on many of them in appearance.

“There were a lot of tears,” Barczyk said. “I went to the bathroom and there were two women. When I went in, both of them were crying, and they both shouted, ‘Oh, this is you.” They came to me, and they were like, ‘Tell us the story again.’ He hugged me and one of them said, ‘You know, I will take the story with me for the rest of my life.’

Craig and Barziq met again several weeks later, with a view of the River of the Cenabecsis in Roths on the back deck of Craig. It took him a few minutes to see the pictures of his child taken in the hospital.

He asked him questions about his birth and he once again told him about the challenges, including pushing him forward through the birth canal and breaking him.

He spread his shoulder area and laughing, saying that “That is why it hurts when it rains, it is your fault.”