Justice for Baby B
The year was 1969. Back then, many doctors acted “like gods … rulers of the medical world,” and Dr. Clayton Jefferson was no different. He fancied himself a god — a giver of life and someone with the power to decide who was worthy of drawing breath and who should be left to die.
In MerriLea Kyllo’s debut novel, Justice for Baby B (Gatekeeper Press), nurse Carolyn Steffan is summoned to help the short-handed obstetrics staff deliver a baby. A mother lays on the delivery table anesthetized but trusting that Dr. Jefferson will deliver her child into the world safely while she is unconscious, expecting that when she wakes, she’ll welcome her newborn with open arms.
When Dr. Jefferson delivers an infant with spina bifida, his divine wisdom deems the child unfit to live. He orders his nursing staff to retrieve “the box” from the supply closet. He tapes over the baby’s mouth to smother its cries, places him into the box and closes the lid ordering a nurse to return the box to the closet where he will return sometime later to pronounce the child dead.
Carolyn can’t make sense of what is happening. This man, this medical professional who took an oath to do no harm, intended to leave a child at its most vulnerable to die, quietly tucked away in some stuffy equipment cupboard.
Carolyn soon realizes that this isn’t the first time Dr. Jefferson had killed a child and told its parents it had been stillborn, but if she has anything to say about it, it will be the last.
Nearly 30 years later, in 1998, Carolyn’s son, Joe, finds a box tucked away in his parents’ basement with a blue blanket and a worn piece of medical tape inside.
His mother had saved him, but in doing so, she had also stolen him.
Now, the infamous Dr. Jefferson has just been awarded “Humanitarian of the Year,” and after learning of his attempted murder all those years ago, Joe, the Assistant District Attorney, is determined to punish that monster for his crimes.
As Joe builds a case against Dr. Jefferson, he stumbles upon one secret after the next, and while everyone involved in the case would love nothing more than to see Dr. Jefferson burn, they know that more than just bodies will turn up if Joe keeps digging into the past.
A story of fierce and unconditional maternal love, Justice for Baby B questions the authority that we bestow doctors and challenges what it means to thrive.
Learn more about Kyllo on her BookTrib author profile page.
