Scary little people.

Hazel Talbot loves her job. She really does. She works 80% neonatal retrieval around one of the most beautiful parts of the world and does so in a fashion that must light up the lives of everyone that comes in contact with her.

Hazel Talbot is the sort of person you want to work with. I say this because I had the pleasure of spending a little time with her in Berlin and, in short, if you don’t think Hazel is fabulous and hilarious I would be consigning you to the “Dubious Judgement” basket. I am proud to say I have met a few men and women over the years that, without even trying, form a litmus test for humanity.

How could anyone not love Hazel Talbot? Seriously?

Hazel works with the littlest sick people. She is good at it. She is so good at it that she may make it look easy but as we all know that is the consequence of hard work and talent. The good news is that she wants to pass on the tricks, the secrets, the knowledge to you and I. She does as much of that for free as possible. (The main Course she teaches at is called NLS and there will be a version of this near you I hope.) She has spoken at SMACC and more training events than you can imagine about how to get over the biggest hurdle in neonatal critical care; YOU and YOUR FEAR.

Hazel and I chit chat our way through this scary subject with much giggling, once again showing how laughter can help in the scariest moments.

We deal with some of important concepts, for example 100% of people are born. So child birth is pretty common, even more common than death. We talk about death a lot in the critical care world but we don’t talk about birth enough. 10% of births are premature. Their mothers did the hard work. Those little humans need a little help and the good news is that you can deliver that.

So if you find this sort thing, a sub 1000 gram sick person, frightening then this one is for you. My personal experience of this is that once you get over the fear this is one of the most beautiful things you could ever be a part of.

Here’s Hazel giving a SMACC talk in Dublin.

There’s another one from Berlin in the pipeline.

The main course Hazel teaches at is called NLS (Neonatal Life Support) and there will be a version of this near you. I hope. The NLS course Hazel refers to is here, so this is what to do.

And here is some proper evidence to chew on.

The folks Hazel works for are here.

They do twitter too; @Embrace_SCH

Babies are small but they aren’t that scary. I used to be a baby. I’m not scary.

Follow @DrHillyHazel on twitter, she will keep the gold dust coming.

Hazel’s daughter chose the music for this podcast and somehow Golden Slumbers, one of my favourite McCartney tunes, from the Beatles classic album Abbey Road. It does seem very right for a neonatologist story about babies that need a little extra care. You can find that in your CD collection, your mums record collection and maybe even your grandparents collection too. Or iTunes. Or Spotify. Or Apple Music. You really should have bought it by now.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.