My husband and I recently lost our little boy to stillbirth, at 22.4 weeks gestational age. When I went to the hospital at the early morning hours for an exam, I assumed they'd tell me I was experiencing Braxton Hicks and send me on my way. Little did I know that I'd be delivering my little boy 36 hours later, due to the amniotic fluid being gone from around the baby. I was admitted to labor and delivery right away and had to wait for my husband to arrive on a flight from Los Angeles, 6 hours later. While in the hospital we went through several shifts of nurses, but one, in particular, stood out above the rest - Nurse Katrina Wilson.
Katrina was exactly what we needed during this time in our lives. She was strong, confident, caring, knowledgeable, and informative and made sure that we were comforted and cared for every step of the way. About 1 hour before delivery, my husband received a call that a family member had landed in Seattle and was on her way to the hospital. When he told me the news, my demeanor completely changed. Here I was, in the most difficult time of my life, with my husband and me in complete sync, and one of my in-laws was about to show up at the hospital at the worst possible time. Nurse Katrina noticed my change in demeanor and immediately went into protective mode. I asked her to please not let anyone in the delivery room at any time, for any reason as I wanted this experience to just be me and my husband. We were soon going to be delivering our little boy with no chance of life, and I didn't want anyone around during those moments. We needed that time to spend with our little boy, alone. Katrina took every effort to ensure that no one was getting into our hospital room. She changed the name on the board outside of our room, she spoke with security to alert them of the situation, she had our status changed in the system to be locked out so that if anyone came to inquire if we were staying there, our name wouldn't show in the system as a patient. She acted fast and it provided relief during a very intense time.
We couldn't have been more grateful for her protective instinct in that moment. On top of that, Katrina showed so much empathy for our situation and we were able to connect with her since her niece had gone through a stillbirth just one month earlier. She could share in our grief and that meant a lot. We were very impressed with the whole medical team at Swedish that helped us through this difficult time, but Katrina especially left a mark on our hearts that we'll never forget.