While the entire NICU staff deserves this award, if we have to choose one person, no doubt Caroline came into our minds immediately. One night before her shift began, our son, J, who was born at 27 weeks and 2 days, had to be reintubated. He experienced his first episode that night shortly before shift change. The episodes consisted of J's chest tensing up to the point where he could not breathe for himself. With these episodes, his oxygen saturations would go from 100% to single digits within seconds. Caroline came on the shift in the middle of these episodes. These episodes continued throughout that night into the morning. Caroline was quick to her feet that night, watching J's numbers to run into his room, pull off his ventilator from the machine, and bag breathe for him. Our sweet J experienced these episodes every half hour to two hours. Caroline ended up spending the entire night in our room with us, sitting at J's bedside, staring at his monitors. She was offered a break if she needed to run to the bathroom, but she never left J's side.
Caroline deserves this award for many reasons. She held herself together professionally. We cannot imagine how difficult this was as we all didn't expect these episodes to happen. J had been in the NICU already 2 months, we thought he was just going to improve from here!
Caroline didn't wait for the doctor or any nurse to come and help her. She took action to start bag breathing while she yelled for help. This saved J's life.
Caroline was dedicated to J. We watched her bag breathe for him, and by the end, when he saturated 100% and she could switch him to the ventilator, we could tell her hand was cramping. Shenevercomplained.
On one of her most stressful shifts, she still loved us, and our son. She believed in. We can still hear her sigh and say, "C'mon buddy."
Lastly, when her shift ended and she was ready to walk out the door, she came into our room. We as parents endured the most horrific night of our lives. We were so exhausted and so weary. Caroline gave us a hug, she may have shed a tear, but the words she said next were what we needed to hear. "Okay, I'm leaving. I will be back tomorrow and I will see you guys tomorrow." She believed in our son. She had confidence that we'd be here another day.
Maybe she feared the worst. Maybe she was hurting and scared. We know she loved J; we know the whole staff loved him. She never let us feel any of her fear. She spoke to us with confidence as she left her shift.
Caroline's quick hands to save J, her love for our little boy, her dedication to not leave his side, her willingness to get sore hands for J to have the breath of life, and her compassion to hug us when we needed it the most, is why she deserves this award. J has graduated the NICU and is creating so many memories at home!
We know many miracles happened in the NICU. We believe Caroline being J's nurse that night was one of them.
"Not all angels have wings, some have stethoscopes."