I recently moved to Charlotte from Maryland to be closer to family. My husband and I found out in April that we were expecting our first child, and we could not have been more ecstatic. We moved when I was about two months pregnant and decided to go to Novant for our prenatal care. Everything during the pregnancy went as planned. I was about as low risk as you can get when it comes to a pregnancy. I am an ER nurse background, and this was my first real time being on the patient side of things in my life. I ended up not going into labor on my own and was called to come in for an elective induction at 40 weeks and 5 days. We got the call at 3 am and rushed in to meet our child. What we didn’t realize is that it was going to be one of the most traumatic and amazing experiences of our lives. I ended up needing to go through several procedures and medication to try and progress labor and with each one I got a little more nervous that things weren’t moving along as they should. That’s where Katelyn comes in. She went above and beyond to explain things on my level and understood my husband's and my sense of humor to be able to put our nerves at ease. She had two laboring moms but was extremely attentive and predicted my feelings, so my nerves didn’t get the best of me. After 36 hours of labor and two of Katelyn’s shifts our baby started to have consistent decels on the fetal monitor and our “low risk” pregnancy turned into a life-or-death delivery very quickly. Suddenly there were 20+ people in our room and I was being rushed to the OR. My husband needed to gown up so who else would you anticipate holding my hand as I was sobbing? Katelyn. She was there every step of the way. They ended up not being able to find a heartbeat as I was being put on the table. Something that I was acutely aware of as a nurse is that it’s both a blessing and a curse to be able to understand all of the medical jargon. 

I was alone, without my husband, strapped to a table, while everyone was rushing around me to try and save our baby and Katelyn was right there. Not only was I scared for my child’s life, but it was the first time in my life that I was scared for my own life. The longest few minutes of my life but our baby girl was born, and she was more beautiful than we could have even imagined! She is perfect and didn’t require a stay in the NICU or any advanced care. Katelyn made sure to stay close by in recovery to help us process what we just went through. We ended up moving to mother baby and thanked Katelyn for her support for the past three days. We then heard a knock on the door later that night and guess who it was? Katelyn. She came by after her very long shift to check in on us and to talk to us about a difficult topic. Trauma. How this experience would/could affect us and to make sure that we talk to each other about how we are feeling. 

My husband and I, both working in healthcare, know just how remarkable and rare this simple act of kindness is. We knew Katelyn was exhausted because it had been a challenging few days for us all, but the fact that she even came after her shift when she had her own family to take care of moved us both to tears. Words really do not adequately explain how thankful we are for Katelyn. She helped give us strength and peace during the most difficult time in our lives and we cannot thank her enough. Our little girl is growing every day and is starting to smile and laugh, my husband and I are still processing what we went through, but we are very open about how we are feeling day to day and I’m not sure either of those things would be happening without Katelyn’s quick clinical assessment and her constant and unwavering support. I have been blessed to work with several nurses who have received a DAISY Award, and I can’t think of a person more deserving than Katelyn.