Disclaimer: I do not own these characters

Chapter Fifteen: No Other Choice

"Morning, Lana." Lu greeted her friend the next morning when she entered the clinic.

"Hey, Lu." Lana replied. "Dr. Jackson wants to see you in his office." Lu groaned.

"Not exactly my favorite way to start a day."

"Maybe not, but doesn't look like you have a choice." Lana answered. Lu glanced at her watch as she headed down the hall towards Robert Jackson's office.

Lu entered Dr. Jackson's office as usual, without knocking.

"Lana said you wanted to..." Lu paused when she realized that the Chief of Staff wasn't along. A man she didn't know was sitting in a chair in front of the desk.

"Oh. Sorry, Dr. Jackson. I didn't realize you were busy." Lu apologized quickly.

"Please come in, Dr. Delgado. This is our attorney, Micah Scott-Baldwin. I've asked him to talk to you about the Kollier case. He's agreed to represent you in court should the need arise." Micah stood and shook hands with Lu.

"Nice to meet you, Dr. Delgado."

"Lu. Call me Lu." Lu replied.

"Please have a seat, Lu." Dr. Jackson indicated the vacant chair in front of his desk.

"I've told Micah what we are dealing with here." Bob said as Lu sat down. "He would like to hear your side of the story." Lu nodded, then cleared her throat nervously.

"My patient, Miranda Kollier, came in the other day for her prenatal checkup. She was 28 weeks pregnant. Everything appeared to be fine. We did an ultrasound, and there was no sign of trouble. Later that afternoon, I was paged to the ER. Miranda was there, and she was in labor. I didn't want to deliver the baby this early. I wanted to stop the labor."

"And why didn't you?" The attorney asked.

"Upon further examination, I discovered that the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck. I didn't know how long the baby had been without oxygen. I had to do an emergency C-Section." Lu answered.

"And if you hadn't?" Micah asked.

"The baby would have died." Lu said softly.

"So the only way to save the baby's life was to deliver?" Micah questioned, wanting to be sure he had the facts straight. Lu nodded.

"Yes. If there was something else I could have done, I would have done it."

"Dr. Jackson says the child has serious health issues. Can you tell me about them?"

"She has respiratory distress syndrome, which is common in preemies. RDS occurs in babies with incomplete lung development." Lu explained, watching as Micah wrote down what she was telling him. "She also has Downs Syndrome." Lu continued. "And we just discovered that she also has a heart murmur."

"Dr. Jackson tells me that the baby's father blames you. Why is that?" Micah questioned.

"He feels that the baby wouldn't have these problems if she hadn't been born so early. He feels that I could have done something else other than deliver her two months early. He doesn't believe that the only way I could save her life was to deliver her."

"And what about the mother? Have you talked to her?" Lu nodded.

"Yeah. She knows that I did what I had to do. But she refuses to go against her husband. Even when I told her that he is suing me for malpractice and refuses to let me continue to treat the baby." Micah wrote down some notes in his notebook. After reading over all that he had written, he looked up at Lu.

"I have to be honest with you, Dr. Delgado. It could be hard to prove that you did everything you could to save the baby's life. Especially if the mother won't speak in your defense. However, I promise that I will do everything in my power to prove that you had no other choice."

"Thank you." Micah stood to leave. Robert and Lu also stood up. Robert shook his hand.

"Thank you, Micah. We'd appreciate anything you can do. Dr. Delgado is a good doctor. She would never do anything to harm a patient."

"I'll be in touch, Robert." After he had left, Robert sat down at his desk and opened a file folder. Seconds later he glanced up and realized that Lu was still standing there.

"Is there something else, Dr. Delgado?"

"Uh...thank you, Dr. Jackson."

"You're welcome, Lu." Lu turned to leave.

"I meant what I said, Lu." Robert said, causing her to pause at the door. "You are a good doctor."

"Uh...Thank you." Lu said again, not quite sure how to respond to this compliment from her boss. "I'd better get to work. I've got a full schedule today." Lu quickly exited the office, not wanting her boss to see the tears that glistened in her eyes.