NICU Doctors, Nurses, and Therapists

The doctors, nurses, and therapists who practice in neonatal care are an amazing group of people.  Whereas we see plenty of skilled medical care represented on TV we rarely see the events and the live or death teams working in a NICU.  We can’t say enough about these people.  They have taken Summer from the jaws of death and given them both back to us all.  Each doctor and nurse is full of love and they are all amazing people in an amazing profession.  We dedicate this page to knowing these people so we can remember them when Summer wants to know where she came from.

Ahn

Anh, pronounced very much like On with an A, is one of Summer’s primary nurses.  Anh loves her job as a neonatal nurse.  She has been taking care of little babies for over ten years. From the moment Anh first took care of Summer she fought with other nurses so that she would be one of the primary care givers.  Anh would tell us that other nurses were fighting over Summer.  Only later did we find out it was Anh who was doing most of the fighting.  From the beginning Anh’s care for Summer stood out.  Not that the other nurses were not providing exceptional care, Anh would do little things that just seemed above and beyond the norm. Whenever we would come to visit and Anh was on duty, she would have little Summer’s feet propped up on a rubber glove filled with warm water to improve the circulation in Summer’s tiny feet.  Other nurses would warm her feet with a moist warm towel, but Anh approach went that tiny bit extra, and we could tell Summer liked it.  Summer is always supported on all sides and cuddled and snuggled with blankets when Anh is working.   Anh also cares a great deal about us.    On Valentines day Anh put together the Valentine you can see on this web site.  We framed the Valentine and will keep it forever.  Anh always looks forward to our visits and seems disappointed if we fail to show up on her shift.  We recognize this and love her for it.  Anh takes pictures of Summer if she sees a smile or a grin she thinks we will like. Anh was not on duty when Summer opened her eyes for the first time.  She was disappointed but later she shot the first and best picture of Summer with her eyes open.  You can view this picture on the pics page.  The best thing I can say about Anh is that she calls the hospital on her days off to check on Summer - that says it all by itself.

Anh. graduated from the Tennessee Technological University Nursing School.  Her favorite food is Tai, her favorite movie is Casablanca, and her favorite book is “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, and It’s All Small Stuff”.  She is married and has a 2-1/2 year old daughter of her own. We hope Summer will get to meet Anh’s baby girl in a few years.  Her hobbies are snow skiing and tennis.  When she comes to work she is always wearing green scrubs, a white turtle neck, and white running shoes.  She loves her job because she loves to touch babies and to watch them  grow.  She loves taking care of Summer because Summer is such a feisty fighter.  She has cared  for many 24 week old babies in her career, But she says she will always remember Summer.

I asked her if I could take her picture for this web site.  She told me no because she would feel vain having her picture taken for her own dedication.  She would let me take a picture of her holding Summer when Summer is big enough.  We sure hope so because we want Summer to always remember Anh.

Debbie

Debbie, or more correctly, short haired Debbie, is one of Summer’s alternate nurses.  We mainly see her on the weekends.  Debbie went to nursing school at the University of Virginia and has been taking care of little ones for over twenty years.  She is married to a Doctor we assume looks like George Cloony although we have never met him.  Together with George they have a beautiful 19 month old baby girl named Sarah.  Debbie loves to read, garden, and quilt.  She and her husband are also avid Scuba divers and have vacationed at our favorite location - Belize, CA.  The most  rewarding aspect of being a neo-natal nurse for Debbie is seeing a critical baby recover and become 100%.  She also enjoys watching a family grow together as their newborn grows.  Maybe we will see Debbie and her husband off the coast of San Pedro about 100 feet down kicking along some canyon walls or perhaps feeding the nurse sharks in Shark-Ray  Alley.  

Linda

Linda is a nurse with a bunch of neonatal experience.  She has been at Alexandria Hospital for 8 years and that she graduated from Kent State University in Ohio.  Linda has an extremely professional demeanor.  She was the first nurse to begin to tell us everything we should expect over the long course we were about to embark on.  So far she has been extremely accurate.  Aside from taking care of the babies themselves, Linda loves taking care of the families.  She feels that watching the families grow with the baby and to become more comfortable with their responsibilities so when the baby is ready to go home they can do so much easier is a big part of her responsibility.  Linda knows it hard not to take the stress of the job home with her so she engages in hobbies such as crafts.  Currently she is building a doll house.  Linda looks forward to the NICU reunions that are held about every two years.  All the families and babies  that served time in the NICU are invited.  We will look forward to these reunions as well.

Norine

Norine likes to take care of babies.  If we have kids, we only get to take care of them as new born babies for a few months of our life.  She gets to take care of them at this early stage of their lives continuously - and she loves it.  Norine graduated from the Columbia Hospital School of Nursing in Pittsburg and has been in pediatrics, ER, ICU, or neonatal nursing for 23 years - 15 dedicated to the neonatal side of things.  She has been at Alexandria Hospital for over 11 years and believes it to be the friendliest place to work.  When she interviewed for the job she knew immediately that she wanted to be there.  She started off things by working at the Jackson Memorial Hospital at the University of Miami where she knew a doctor who later became the president of Pediatrix (the medical group the neonatologists work for).  She is married and has three boys. She keeps in shape by walking and weightlifting and looks forward to the day when her and her husband can compete at Ball Room Dancing.  She is an avid reader and loves Michael Crighton - although since she doesn’t watch TV she’s not able to enjoy his work on ER. Of all the nurses, Norine is the most stylish in the NICU.  She wears custom scrubs.  Either multicolor or scrub dresses.  She hardly ever wears the same out - and never two days in a row.

Alison

Alison is the baby of the NICU.  She graduated from Northern Virginia School of Nursing less than a year ago.  After attending Colby College in Maine and Mary Washington here in Virginia, and majoring in English she decided moving into heath care was her calling.  After getting accepted into the NOVA program she began volunteering at Alexandria Hospital.  Later she landed a part time job working as an administrator in the NICU.  From there her love of  little babies and the course for this part of her life was charted.  She would become a Neonatal Nurse.  Typically, neo-natal nurses are not accepted straight after graduation. But since she was so familiar with the NICU Sharyl  (One of Summer’s primary nurses) picked her up as a protégé and carried her under her wing for several months.  Sharyl has done a fine job.  Alison may seem young but we never noticed a lack of experience.  One oddity about Alison is that she was born and raised in Massachucetts but yet has absolutely no accent - she says she worked very hard to put the r’s back into her speach.  She sounds like she is from the mid-west.  She is married and enjoys fixing up her new house with her husband.  Alison wears a stylish plaid scrub jacket that her husband bought her for Christmas.  She believes that although the hospital in general, and an intensive care unit specifically, may seem like a bad place, she finds the NICU to be a very positive place.  Full of life and hope.  Alison’s attitude certainly helps add to this positive nature. 

Danny

Danny is a respiratory therapist.  One of several who work in the NICU.  There are about 8 at the Hospital but only 4 or so are qualified to work the NICU.  Danny graduated from the NOVA program about 15 years ago and loves his job.  He loves being apart of a babies respiratory therapy because of all the treatments that go on, a babies lungs have the greatest impact on the babies condition.  You can watch a babies condition go from critical to stable very quickly based on the medication, equipment, and therapy he has been trained to provide and assist the doctors and nurses in providing.  Respiratory therapists in general have responsibility for adjusting the respirators, performing the regular blood gas tests, and administering the lung medication.  You can count on Danny or another therapist visiting with Summer about every four hours. Danny is married and has two kid, 3 and 6.  His hobby is golf when he can find the time.

Jeanne

Jeanne is from the Mid West.  She went to nursing school in De Moines Iowa at an area community college. Being married to an officer in the Air Force she has moved around a lot during her career.  She started her nursing career in Apple Valley, CA at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Pediatric Nursing then moved to Concord MA staying involved with Pediatrics.  Her next move would take her to Colorado Springs where she would become a Neonatal Nurse at the Pemrose NICU.  From there it was off to Minneapolis MN where she worked in the North Memorial NICU followed by a move to San Antonio, TX where she worked in the Baptist Hospital Nursery taking a break from the NICU life.  Finally she arrived at the Alexandria NICU when her husband was transferred to the Pentagon and has been her for three years.  She has two cats (Miss Kim and Rag Doll) and two children.  Her hobbies include reading, gardening, snow skiing and carting her children to and from athletic events.  She is attracted to the NICU because she loves babies and the miracle they represent - if it wasn’t for the baby fix she gets when she is in the NICU she would have 10 children of her own.

Julianne

Julianne was raised in up state New York but went to the University of South Florida and began her nursing career in St. Petersburg, FL.  After working in almost every kind of nursing field for almost 10 years she decided that nursing wasn’t for her and that she would get out of the business.  Then a friend of hers talked her into giving neo natal nursing a try.  She started at Tampa General Hospital and loved it.  Of all the nursing she has done she feels the most sense of accomplishment in the NICU.  She feels that it is here that she can do the most good.  After 10 years she had burned out as a nurse but the significant contributions she could make in the NICU revived her.  She felt that something good is going to come out of work - and it certainly has.  Again and again I imagine.  After working as a traveling nurse for a short few months she landed at Holy Cross in their NICU where she would work for 12 month.  In 1995 she checked in at Alexandria and has been there ever since.  She enjoys running, horses, and reading and in a strange twist of fate delivered her own baby girl at 31 weeks.  She has first hand knowledge of having a baby in the NICU.

Marlena

Marlena was Summer’s first nurse.  She was on duty and in the delivery room on 6 Feb 1998 at 9:26 pm.  She will always remember Summer for the way she arrived in this world.  Marlena is from Peru.  She attended  the University of Chiclayo and began neo natal nursing in Venez, Peru.  She has been in the US for 18 years.  She is an avid world traveler and has been to the Caribbean, Bermuda, Spain, England, Greece, France, Italy, Equacdor, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Mexico, Morocco, and Portugal - that gives her 5 of 7 continents.  She enjoys reading and talks to Norine about the books she reads (Scary)  Her favorite book is The Conquerors, favorite movie is Gone with the Wind, and favorite cuisine is spicy food from Morocco.  She loves the small hospital and family oriented feel of the Alexandria NICU.  She likes how the unit works as a team to take care of both the babies and the families.  She feels an incredible emotional pull involved in the fight for life and death.  More than most she attaches to the babies and feels the emptiness when they leave the NICU.  Her best reward is when the babies she has cared for come back to visit.  Summer will always belong to Marlena.  

Dr. Z

It will be hard for words to describe Dr. Z.  That is probably why it has taken me such a long time to sit down to write her profile. Since Dr. Z was on duty the night Summer was born, we credit her with saving Summer’s life.  Is Dr. Z an angel or just an outstanding medical professional on duty the night of Summer’s birth?  Let’s start at the beginning and lead up to that fateful night that brought Dr. Z. into the emergency room and Summer to us.

Dr. Z. is from Chile.  Had she not gotten into the medical profession she would have been a ballerina, a gymnast, or a truck driver.  This is an interesting combination and although she is built more like a gymnast, we are glad she is a doctor.  She grew up eating various shell fish from South America and different parts of a pig (kidneys and feet).  Being from SA soccer was obviously the sport of choice, and her knowledge of world soccer puts mine to shame.  She was quick with tips for my soccer playing ability and also helped me learn a couple of soccer phrases in Spanish so that I can communicate better on the pitch with some of my Salvadorian soccer friends.  Although she does not think much of women’s soccer,  her gymnast build would have certainly translated well into this beautiful sport.

Dr. Z attended  the internationally renown University of Concepcion, as well as the University of Chile in Santiago to become a doctor.  While studing with a fellowship in neurology her husband (an economist) was transferred to Paraguay in 1969.  She followed him and because her medical license did not transfer she began volunteer work in pediatrics.  During the early 70’s there was great civil unrest in Chile.  A socialist and communist led party was elected in 1970.  What followed were several years of economic hardship followed by the military overthrow of the Chilean government in 1973.   Fortunately for Dr. Z, she was in Paraguay during the revolt which cost the lives of many of the classmates she graduated college with. 

In 1974 Dr. Z came to the United States with her husband.  Unable to take the medical qualifying exam to transfer her medical credentials because she could not speak English, she began to learn the language.  In 1980 she took the medical exam and passed.  Despite studying English in several programs, she credits a Metro Bus Driver with really teaching her how to speak English.  She started a residency program at Howard University and obtained her state license in 1983.  She immediately went into private practice with another Chilean from 1985 - 1988.  She hated private practice and began moonlighting as a neonatoligist.  Although most neonatologists must complete a fellowship in neonatology, she learned on the job.  In 1991 she signed on with the medical group Pediatrix.  They selected her because of the respect she gained as a moon lighting neonatologist.  She never looked back.  Neonatology is her life.  And from what we can see, she is one of the best in the business.   The life and death business she is in creates an excitement and a sense of clarity for her that defies explanation.  When she walks into a traumatic delivery, such as Summer’s, a baby born with an APGAR of 0, no respiration, no heart beat, no muscle response, and blue skin, it scares her to death.  With the arriving adrenaline surge comes total clarity.  Depending on the circumstances she knows just what to do.  Typically you get about one shot with the endo-tracea tube.  Dr. Z can insert it in one move.  The next move is the injection of epinepherin to start the babies heart.  Seconds mean the difference between a health baby and a baby that will experience many problems in their life, or worse.  Nurses in the NICU have told me the Doctor you want in the delivery room with you is Dr. Z.  I believe them.  Within minutes of Summer’s delivery I was in the NICU watching Dr. Z. work, as she threaded the umbilical arteries with a tube (threading a thread with a thread).  It was amazing to watch.  I was overcome with confidence that this medical team knew exactly what they were doing and somehow I knew Summer would be OK.  Dr. Z explained it to me as she worked and as I watched.  Those early visions of the NICU looking at Summer and watching Dr. Z work will be memories I will carry forever.  In the morning as Dr. Z was departing for her shift change I hugged her and told her she saved Summer’s life.  Although I thought I was hugging her, I now suspect, she was hugging me.   Summer will know about Dr. Z as she grows.

Aside from watching soccer, Dr. Z has a few more hobbies.  Although she would have you believe that she is still raising her two baby boys, later we would find out these baby boys are grown adults ready to graduate from college.  Dr. Z plays guitar, she likes to run and walk to stay in shape, and she likes knitting and embroidery.  In fact she is already knitting a blanket for Summer.  Her favorite movies are spagetti westerns with Clint Eastwood and her favorite book, which she reads often, is the Bible.

The other doctors in the NICU are smart, compassionate, professionals who we will always remember were there to care for Summer.  Dr. Z however  falls into the small list of magical people that show up in your life and change it forever.  God put her here on earth so that on Feb 6, 1998 at 9:26 pm, when Summer was born, at 9:27 pm God could give her life through Dr. Z’s hands.   Medical Doctor or Angel?  You decide, we already have.

Sharyl

We call her Sharyl although she is the only nurse in the NICU to answer the phone with her last name. “NICU, Mrs. W.” she said to me almost every morning for 87 days.  Then she would immediately launch into her morning update as if she instinctively knew that parents, although trying to be polite, are only interested in what she has to say next.  And Mrs. W. never let me down.  Her next words were, “Your daughter had a good evening”, signifying immediately that everything was all right.  Maybe I didn’t hear anything past those words, and maybe I didn’t care, but those were the words I would pass to Lisa, who refused to call in the morning because she was too scared.

Sharyl was another one of Summer’s primary nurses.  She typically worked the day shift from 7am to 3 pm.  Ahn would replace her at 3 pm, followed by Debbie at 11 pm.  Since  Sharyl was there during the day, Lisa would spend most of her time learning about premie care from Sharyl.  Sharyl serves as a mentor for younger nurses and a stellar professional for anxious parents.  Allison, the youngest on the nursing staff, is not lacking in skill and experience, due in no small part, to Sharyl’s training.  I am glad, it was Sharyl who trained Lisa, and now that Summer is home, it is Sharyl who Lisa calls on for questions.  

Sharyl has been a nurse for twenty years.  Having attended the South Dakota Nursing College, she worked in Pedatric ICU for a 6 years before beginning work as a neonatal nurse 14 years ago at Alexandria.    Her interest in neonatology grew out of her experience in the Ped ICU and her technical knowledge of neonatology  no doubt rivals that of most Doctors in the profession.  Since she never once questioned a doctors prognosis or treatment,  we feel that may be as a direct result of her influence on the doctors treatment in the first place.   We were never there to witness it, but we feel certain her influence on the doctors weighed heavily into Summer’s treatment.  We view this as an extremely positive thing.  

Sharyl’s hobbies include walking, biking, hiking, and canoeing and because she specifically stated that she doesn’t scuba dive, we suspect that she would really like to learn.  Sharyl say’s she has never met a food she didn’t like so we further suspect that Dr. Z has never cooked for her.

She takes seriously the training of parents and loves to see how the parents grow from being scared to being fully confident to care for their new baby when it’s time to go home.  She views the best part as the relationships that spring up between nurses and parents and patients as a result of the happenstance that threw everyone together.   Although there are emotional ups and downs she views each success as a fundamentally deep spiritual experience.  Together we all learn what’s important and valuable in this life.

As Summer grows we look forward to her getting to know Sharyl and we know this will be sooner rather than later because Sharyl has insisted that she be allowed to baby sit Summer for us really soon.  No doubt Lisa and I will take her up on her offer.

The Others

There were so many other care providers for Summer in the NICU...alas as I got this blog rolling and decided to interview as many of them as I could, by the time summer was discharged I did not get to them all.  With good intentions I thought I would return.  Unfortunately, time and the next 16 years went by in a blur, but here are their names for the record.

Debbie, Norma, Cathy, Carole, Melanie, Elaine, Dr. V, Dr. H, and, Dr. G - The chief of Neonatology. We would also like to thank Trisa M, who was a duty nurse at the NICU,  but later became a nurse at our pediatrician who would look after Summer for many years as she was growing up.  Premie's require a bit more special care through the early years and it was nice to have a trained neo-natal nurse on the staff with our pediatrician.