#409 - 🔵 [NEO CONFERENCE] - Saving Babies, a book that capture the stories from the NICU (Dr. Tarek Nakhla)

Hello friends 👋

Live from the NEO Conference in Las Vegas, Ben and Daphna sit down with Dr. Tarek Nakhla to discuss his new book, Saving Babies Behind the Doors of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Moving beyond standard medical textbooks, Dr. Nakhla shares how chronicling nearly 30 years of challenging patient encounters and complex family dynamics can serve as an essential guide for new trainees. The conversation highlights the therapeutic power of narrative medicine for clinicians and the profound impact of non-clinical staff on the family experience. Discover why capturing the human side of neonatology is just as critical as the clinical science.

Link to episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/RasFvKo2D5U

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Short Bio: Tarek Nakhla, MD is a board-certified neonatologist with over 30 years of clinical experience, currently practicing in a NICU in southern New Jersey. Born in Egypt, he relocated to the United States in 1990, where he completed his medical training and built his career in neonatal medicine. Over the course of his career, he has practiced across multiple hospitals and NICUs, bringing a broad perspective to the care of critically ill newborns. Dr. Nakhla has authored and co-authored numerous peer-reviewed scientific articles and has been recognized with a Fellowship Research Award from the Maimonides Society, as well as the Main Line Health Top Doc distinction in 2017. He is committed to advancing neonatal care through both clinical practice and scholarly contribution.

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The transcript of today's episode can be found below 👇

Ben Courchia MD (00:00.142) Hello everybody, welcome back to the Incubator Podcast. We are back live at the NEO conference in Las Vegas. Daphna, you are already browsing the book of our guest, Dr. Tarek Nakhla. Tarek, welcome to the podcast.

Tarek Nakhla MD (00:12.814) Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Ben Courchia MD (00:14.926) I'm going to ask you to bring your microphone just closer to your mouth so we can hear you well. Perfect. And then you are the author of the brand new book called Saving Babies. It is published by Springer and it is authored by you and Hallam Hurt. It's called Saving Babies: Behind the Doors of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Can you tell us a little bit about what this book is about?

Tarek Nakhla MD (00:40.294) Yeah, it basically is stories of encounters with patients throughout my career, almost 30 years. It is mostly stories with patients, but I did categorize it into different chapters. It's mostly helpful for new providers and new trainees. I think it will give them an idea of how the human part of the NICU operates, other than the equipment and the knowledge. It's not in the textbook.

Ben Courchia MD (01:19.114) The part that is not taught in the textbook. Well, now it is.

Daphna Yasova Barbeau MD (01:23.998) Now this is the textbook. I love it because there are already some things that have caught my attention. Specifically, "When babies talk and we listen." I love that. There are some things in here: "Unexpected responses," "Lost in translation." I know I'm going to enjoy that one. And then another one, I think it's called, "Mistakes do happen." Oof, there are even some poems in here.

Tarek Nakhla MD (01:47.914) Yes, I started out with poems and then I started...

Ben Courchia MD (01:51.574) An unpopular thing to do. That's right.

Daphna Yasova Barbeau MD (01:53.55) But I love that. What inspired you to write?

Tarek Nakhla MD (01:59.346) It's basically difficult cases that I encountered as a junior attending as I started to interact with the families. I saw different reactions from different families, and also reactions when I was teaching residents and students. It made me feel that we are missing part of the NICU; the way we interact together and the way we interact with families is not really written. There are some individual stories that you find, but this is a collection of so many stories and different interactions with families, trainees, and nurses throughout.

Ben Courchia MD (02:49.408) Not always. I mean, you have a section on the unit secretary. I think that being the first person of the staff that parents...

Tarek Nakhla MD (02:52.738) Yes.

Daphna Yasova Barbeau MD (02:58.102) Hugely important. I'll tell you, at our hospital, on the Google reviews, the best and most common reviews are actually for the floor clerk on our floor. She gets the most reviews as she greets the family as they come in the elevators for L&D, postpartum, and the NICU. Sherry is her name. She does all sorts of things for families, but it's something about her greeting them, like you said.

Ben Courchia MD (03:17.468) How...

Daphna Yasova Barbeau MD (03:30.336) Seeing them. Seeing them as people, recognizing that they're there for an emotional time, some good, some bad. And so she is the most commonly reviewed person at our hospital.

Tarek Nakhla MD (03:40.622) It can make a difference in their day and their experience, the NICU experience. That's why I had to put the "Who's Who" in the NICU and the more human part. Other than credentials, who we meet in the NICU as humans, more than their credentials. I hope the word comes out to people.

Ben Courchia MD (04:04.706) We're hoping to be contributing to the dissemination of the good work that you're doing. Again, the book is called Saving Babies. You said that your hope is maybe that trainees can get to it. I think that if you are potentially a program director and you have five or six trainees coming in...

Daphna Yasova Barbeau MD (04:25.602) It would be a great welcome gift.

Ben Courchia MD (04:28.616) Summer pre-reading. I think this is the type of book that lends itself right to priming for neonatology fellowship.

Daphna Yasova Barbeau MD (04:35.874) 100 percent. Where can people get it?

Tarek Nakhla MD (04:38.265) It's on the Springer Nature website but it's also on Amazon, because everything is on Amazon.

Daphna Yasova Barbeau MD (04:43.82) You...

Ben Courchia MD (04:45.326) And what is the next book you're writing about? You're taking some time. What is your advice for people who might want to put pen to paper and might want to write as a reaction to some of the things we experience in the NICU? Can you tell them what your experience has been and what kind of... Is this for you something that is relieving therapy?

Daphna Yasova Barbeau MD (05:09.838) It's therapeutic.

Tarek Nakhla MD (05:10.542) I think it is. And at the same time, whenever you have an experience with any patient that made you feel for them or touched you, it makes sense to let it out and tell other people about it. They could have an experience like this so they could benefit from situations where maybe you did something wrong or maybe you did something better. So at least it will give more people some idea of how to handle situations that we handle in the NICU.

Ben Courchia MD (05:47.022) Absolutely. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. The book is called Saving Babies: Behind the Doors of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit published by Springer, available on Amazon and the Springer website. Thank you for joining us.

Tarek Nakhla MD (05:57.294) Thank you for having me.