My Miracle last April

To Preface this story I am a many year Paramedic turned brand new RN.

My best friend had a beautiful baby girl last April. Her pregnancy was healthy, and the OB-GYN did not expect any complications. She had an Ultrasound three weeks before delivery that showed many decelerations so she had an emergency c-section. The baby was delivered vigorous, had good apgars and required o2 via o2 hood to maintain saturations. Throughout the day she required more oxygen and ultimately was transported to a high level NICU. When the transport team arrived she was intubated and put on a high frequency ventilator and required meds to stabilize her blood pressure. We were not given an initial diagnosis. This came as a shock to my friend, her husband and our family and friends.

She was initially diagnosed with a severe heart defect, and a couple of days later she was diagnosed with a chromosomal abnormality so severe that it was not compatible with life.
My friend, her husband and all of us spent the next 10 days camped out at the hospital. There are no words to adequately describe the staff amazing does not do justice.

Their expertise and skills were top notch. The most important thing was that they cared so much for my friends baby, and for her and her husband and yes even the family members. They invested all of themselves in her care and were truly devastated when her final diagnosis was discovered. I remember thinking to myself how do these wonderful people do this job day after day.

The 10 days of her life will be a time I will never forget. For 10 days everyone came together without regard for anything and truly cared for someone else. Ultimately my friend and her husband made the heroic decision to withdraw like support. The nurse that had been primarily taking caring of my friends baby came in on her day off without pay to help my friend and her husband through the probably worse day in their life. She did it without thought of herself, she did not think of how this might effect her in the long term she did it because that is what being a nurse is all about.

My little friend was buried in a mountainous private church graveyard which was quite a road to travel to. The nurses who cared for her came and spoke at her funeral. It was something that nobody else could say. My friend and I visited the hospital a few weeks after she passed away to thank the nurses for their wonderful care, and my friend was presented with a keepsake box of a porcelain set of foot prints and hand prints, photos and a lock of hair. I was speechless. Nurses are truly heroes.

It has been 9 months since little friend passed away, and my best friend has good days and bad days. Because of the wonderful nursing she received she is able to move forward. My friend came to visit the nurses that cared for her baby last month, and I was one of the nurses she came to visit to. I was so inspired by their wonderful skill and compassionate patient care that I work with the same heroes that cared so very much for my family.

Nursing is a culture. It is culture of many different people from different walks of life, races, religions and belief. It is a culture of caring people that help people in the most frail and intimate aspects of their life. The greatest reward is knowing by simply caring about someone you deeply touch their lives.