Re: Poll: What do you love about the NICU?
I have worked in NICU for 29 years now. Approximately 2 years ago, a mother phoned me at home. She had seen my name in the paper and looked me up. Twenty years ago, I was the primary nurse for her daughter, an infant with a massive lung mass, who was hospitalized for over 8 months. Her mom came to visit her every day, but hadn't held her for months.
And she said to me....I never forgot you. I came in to the NICU one day, and you said that you had a surprise for me. You had me sit in a rocking chair, and gathered up about 5 staff members to assist you. You allowed me to hold me daughter for the first time, intubated, lines, chest tubes and all. I will never forget you, or the compassion you showed by allowing me the gift of holding my baby girl.
Then very recently I was contacted by the mother of a little boy who was a 24 weeker, and was now 11 years old. He was another one of my primary patients. He had severe ROP, and his parents were told that he would be blind. His mother was a school teacher, and I remember when I came to work that day, his mother was holding him. She took one look at me, and started crying. She said that she'd been waiting for me to come all day. We talked for over an hour, as she cried out her feelings but not ever being able to teach her son about color, or what the sky, the ocean, or the mountains looked like, because he couldn't see them.
When he was discharged, his mother gave me a framed plaque, which I still have. It said "Friend, You came in just when it seemed like the whole world had gone out."
We'd been exchanging Christmas cards for years. her son is legally blind, but can see just enough to be able to distinguish colors. Even at age 11, you can tell he'd ben a preemie! But a handsome one.
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