“They are receiving care,” Dr. Hisham assured me. “Our priority is to make sure every newborn is accounted for and medically stable.”
Then a nurse hurried in with another report.
“Doctor, we’ve counted nine newborns.”
Nine.
I looked at Mamdouh.
He looked at me.
Neither of us spoke.
The doctors checked the delivery records, the neonatal admission forms, and the identification bands. Nine newborns had been registered as delivered by me.
But there was another problem.
Some of the records did not match.
One chart contained a number that appeared to belong to the mother rather than the child. Another entry referred to a newborn without a clearly assigned cot number.
At first, everyone thought it was a documentation error caused by the emergency.
Then they checked the security footage.
The camera covering the corridor outside the neonatal unit had stopped recording for seven minutes immediately after the ninth newborn was delivered.
