My son W was born at Women & Babies Hospital in Lancaster, PA. His delivery was anything other than easy. I was induced for gestational hypertension. As a first-time mom, I had no idea what to expect. It took four days to get my body into active labor. I finally began to progress towards being able to deliver my son vaginally. I pushed for nearly three hours, but he was not able to descend down the birth canal due to his positioning. W was facing up instead of down. My doctor attempted to rotate him using her hand so we could continue with delivering him. Without success, the decision was made to deliver via c-section. We arrived at couplet care at 7:00 pm. Abbey Evans was our nurse. After what had been days of exhaustion (both mentally and physically) we were finally able to rest and celebrate the birth of our son. Abbey had an extremely caring and attentive bedside manner as I began the recovery process. Less than 12 hours later, Abbey came to us and told us that she noticed a bruise and some minor swelling behind W’s right ear underneath his hat. This was most likely caused during the attempt to deliver vaginally. She had already contacted the NICU at Women & Babies as well as our pediatrician to let them know. My husband and I truly felt that Abbey was attentively caring for our newborn son. Abbey’s shift ended soon after that, and W continued to be monitored throughout that day. By dinner time, W’s bruise had turned into a subgaleal hemorrhage and he was airlifted to CHOP and began treatments after being diagnosed with Hemophilia Type A. Had it not been for Abbey’s attention to detail, W’s story could have ended very differently. As of now, W is doing significantly better. While we are thankful for the many doctors and nurses who have worked to save our son’s life, we owe our initial and deepest heartfelt gratitude to Abbey! 

Note: this is Abbey's 2nd DAISY Award!