Shelby Skiles and her husband, Jonathan, ended up in the ER for a terrifying reason in May. Sophie, their 2-year-old daughter, was having trouble breathing normally.
Restless Mom Waiting in Hospital Writes Letter to Nurses Caring for 2-Year-Old with Cancer
It’d immediately became transparent they were required to transfer over to Children’s in Dallas, where they waited for the test results of a softball-sized tumor in their daughter’s chest. Waiting in hospitals would then become their new normal, because Sophie was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma.
Skiles wrote on her blog, “My goal through this entire process has been to be transparent and honest and shine light on what really goes on during a battle against cancer. I haven’t sugarcoated the bad days but, I’ve also been able to show the great work the Lord has done in the last few months of our lives.”
Though devastated by the result of the diagnosis, even on those bad days, there could be light. And sometimes, the light itself came in the form of a particularly kind nurse.
Skiles addressed the nurses caring for Sophie in her touching letter. The letter went viral with over 51,000 reactions and over 26,000 shares after she share it on her Facebook.
The main theme of the letter was that this mother actually observe the nurses went above and beyond for her daughter with cancer, as her spent plenty of time sitting by her daughter’s bedside in the hospital.
The experience allowed her a glimpse of the many sacrifices and decisions nurses had to make, all so that her daughter would be more comfortable. There is nothing comfortable or pleasant about cancer, but the nurses can make a huge difference in a child’s experience in the hospital.
Skiles wrote, “I see you hesitate to stick her or pull bandaids off… I see you put on gloves and a mask and try not to make too much noise at night.”
“I see you holding the crying mom that got bad news. I see you trying to chart on the computer while holding the baby whose mom can’t — or won’t be at the hospital with her,” she went on.
Her description of the nurses putting smiles on their faces “no matter what’s happening in there” and checking in on her daughter “even when she isn’t your patient” just make me want to hug every single nurse I knew. Not only are they are doing what they were assigned to do, they are also changing lives.
Thank you, Skiles, for seeing and acknowledging the incredible work the nurses do daily. This mother has definitely reached her goal in showing “the great work the Lord has done” through her letter as she concluded that the nurses are “Jesus to us every single day.”
Jeannie Joseph is a neonatal nurse working at SwedishAmerican..
Teen Walks Down Hall Holding Shoebox. Then Nurse Sees 3-Lb Baby Wrapped In Dishtowel Inside
In 2004, she had already worked for a decade, and she is currently still working at the hospital today.
After walking nearly 8 miles through the city streets, a small boy with his shoebox came in the hospital. Terrified in a hooded sweatshirt, he made his way toward the nursery.
Joseph notice the boy and his small age. When the health workers found out what was inside the box, rolled up in a dish towel and the onesie of a doll, they immediately put into isolation the the 6-week-premature infant.
The boy was asked by Joseph that it would be helpful if he could provide some information regarding the circumstances of the birth, as well as if he could provide anything relating to the birth mother, at the same time making sure he knew it was not necessary for him to give up any names. “We were sad, of course, but we had to work very fast with this baby,” she said.
The baby was in a critical condition with an extremely frail body temperature of only 94.7, and Dr. Martin Anyebuno, who treated the baby since he arrived, said he was so surprised to find the infant could even breath on his own. He was treated for hypothermia, dehydration, and due to the umbilical cord was severed by the mother using a house scissors, an infection.
Joseph then told the baby’s father, who had been hanging around crying for three hours, until he made certain the infant was stable, that if he relinquished his rights under the law, right then and there, he could never receive any further updates concerning the child’s health. She went on to tell him that he did not need to make his decision right away, and handed him a pair of parental bracelets so he and the mother could visit if they chose to.
15 years old Cherish Coates, the baby’s mother, had given birth to the child in her bedroom, using her grandfather’s scissors to cut the umbilical cord and tying it off with a shoestring. She lived with her grandparents, but manage to hide her pregnancy as she had never gotten very big.
Joseph first met Coates when the young mother was walking toward the nursery, keeping her head low. Sympathising with the girl, she placed her hand on the young mom’s shoulder and told her, “I’m taking care of this cute little guy.”
Lading her to the incubator, Joseph then told her, “You know that you saved his life, right? I don’t want you to hang your head. You gave him the best chance you could.”
During the baby’s month-long stay in the hospital, he had to battle meningitis and jaundice, struggling over the odds. Thanks to Joseph’s kind words, Coates and the father visited the nursery every day, and she brought bottles of chilled breast milk.
Coates had been afraid to tell her grandparents and her mother about her pregnancy, knowing that her mom had also had her at 15 and ended up dropping out of school due to it. She knew they did not want the same thing for her.
Because Joseph was never judgemental on her and was so nurturing and motherly, Coates told her about the fear of telling her grandparents, and she encouraged her to do so, which Coates finally doing it.
Coates’ mother came to the hospital and immediately wanted to get a hold of the baby, and her grandmother had an identical reaction shortly after. They told her they just wish she would not have kept her pregnancy a secret.
Coates knew everyone was afraid she would drop out of school like her mother had done if she kept the baby, but was surprised when her family offered to watch little baby Allen while she attended classes. Coates not only graduated high school, she even graduated from Rock Valley College as a certified nursing assistant, and now working as a law clerk while attending law school in hopes of becoming a mental health attorney.
A year after her baby had been born, Coates went back to the hospital to thank Joseph and the rest of the nurses. She told Joseph, “I want you to be proud of me.”
Joseph and Coates lost touch with one another over time, but it was because of Joseph that Coates chose to become a nursing assistant. But after 12 years, Coates wanted to tell Joseph how much of an impression she had made on her, so she reached out to her on Facebook from her home in Arizona where she now resides.
She let Joseph know that her “shoebox baby,” Allen Corey, is doing just fine and that she is now a mother of three. Allen began reading late and was born with a slight speech impediment, but by the fourth grade he was reading at a ninth-grade level in mainstream classes, is now in the eighth grade, plays soccer, runs cross-country, and is currently a member of the Navy Sea Cadet program.
The father is unfortunately no longer in their lives and has not been since the child was four. Coates and Joseph stay in regular contact with each other but are not certain when they would get to visit.
Joseph had this to say, “It just makes me think, Wow, every interaction you have with anybody is so important. to be able to be in this position where I’m part of someone’s story of their life – that’s such an honor.”
The Safe Haven law was enacted in 2001. The law allows parents to abandon newborn babies at any location allowed by law and not be prosecuted, provided that the child is unharmed. Safe Havens consist of hospitals, firehouses, and police stations.
The SwedishAmerican hospital in Rockford, Illinois, did not have their first abandoned infant at their facility until 2004. According to Dawn Geras, Save Abandoned Babies Foundation’s executive director, ever since the law was introduced, the state of Illinois has had 120 babies placed for adoption under its guidelines.