A Walter Reed doctor and his family recently became patients at the hospital where he serves, relying on the medical center’s presidential care during a life-threatening event.

“My wife Sarah’s prenatal course was somewhat complicated with chronic kidney disease since childhood that made her pregnancy high risk for her health,” explained U.S. Army Capt. (Dr.) Brian Graziose, a fellow in Walter Reed’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) who also works closely with the obstetrics (OB) team.

Graziose explained that Walter Reed’s Maternal Fetal Medicine team and OB clinic closely followed his wife throughout her pregnancy.

“In the last week, she started to show signs of worsening kidney function, and we were able to reach out in the evening to discuss her lab results. We ultimately decided on delivery as soon as possible,” Graziose added.

“She had an ECV (external cephalic version) when we arrived [at Walter Reed] that was successful in turning our baby from breech to transverse and then was able to deliver her the next day.”

“We had our daughter, Victoria, on Oct. 30,” said Graziose, who shared that this was the couple’s first child. “Both Sarah and Victoria are healthy and doing quite well now.”

He described the care his family received as “Excellent."

"I am now about halfway through my sixth year at Walter Reed, [and] I have worked closely with the OB team throughout that time, especially during the last three years of my NICU fellowship. Their care both with the high-risk prenatal care and with the delivery itself was incredible,” Graziose stated.

“From my perspective, we are typically called to deliveries when there is an increased risk or potential for a NICU admission for a multitude of reasons, so I generally consider those times to be more high stakes and usually our time together is pretty brief. But being on the other side of the care and watching their work as a patient was really reassuring,” Graziose added.