I worked in bedside healthcare for over 5 years, and my husband is a firefighter/paramedic who has been in the medical field for over 8 years. To this day we haven't met or witnessed such a compassionate healthcare professional who went completely above and beyond her job. It's been almost 16 months, and we still talk about her and how she went so above and beyond what she was called to do. We tell all of our friends that we highly recommend going here for delivery because of Michelle Kelly.

This was the best (and arguably the worst) day of my life. I had labored for a total of about 27 hours, and the hardest time I had was during Michelle's shift. I had decided to get an epidural when she came on, and she made it happen right away. And it worked great for about 2 hours. Then, for the rest of her shift, I was so sick. I was vomiting, shaking, could barely talk, had spiked a fever, and was just overall a mess. My husband and Michelle had to reposition me every time because I couldn't move. But Michelle spent all day by my side fighting for me. I can't remember who it was, but the lady who came to fix my epidural was just nasty to me. She had a horrible attitude and kept making unnecessary, mean comments and kept ignoring Michelle's calls to come help. Michelle stood up for me each and every time. She was able to have them give me a new epidural later on towards the end of her shift, which thankfully worked.

It was clear that Michelle truly cared. She never made me feel like a burden, she eased my nerves, she made me feel seen and heard. She fought hard for me to get another epidural, which was a lifesaver. She helped hold me up as they did that second epidural. I had so much edema that it took a while to get it in. When she sat me up, even though it had been hours since my water had broken, more gushed out all over her and her shoes. And I felt horrible, but she just kept reassuring me, making sure I was okay. She was in my room almost the whole 12 hours. At the end of her shift, I was able to start pushing. She had to stay really late to chart and we were waiting to see if our baby was a boy or girl. She came in a few times to see how I was progressing and was hoping to find out the gender and shared the same excitement we felt. We ended up needing to do a C-section because our baby started showing signs of distress, but we were so blessed to have a healthy baby girl. We requested to have her the rest of our stay but unfortunately, we didn't get to see her again. We've never stopped thinking of her. We even told one of the staff members (unfortunately I can't remember who) that we wanted to have her as our RN again and they said they never heard of her. So my husband and I said she had to be an angel because she was so selfless and truly cared about our comfort and experience.

I feel horrible. I've waited this long to reach back out to the hospital about how great Michelle was, but maybe that also shows how much of an impact she made on my family and me. But every single day since then, I've thought of her. We are praying and getting ready to start trying to grow our family again, and the first thing I will do when it's my time to be on your unit is ask for Michelle again! She made a horrible experience so much better. So Michelle, if you see this, you probably don't remember us, but we will never forget you. Thank you for caring and for making a big difference in our lives. It might have been just a long work day for you, but it was a day when we saw the compassion of Jesus working through you. Thank you for being an answered prayer at a time when we felt so vulnerable and scared. I attached a photo of us in the hospital and then a more recent photo of our family. Thank you so much. You will never know the impact you've truly made on our family.