When Elizabeth Hall, a registered nurse at Piedmont, was 23 weeks pregnant, she was diagnosed with placenta previa, a condition in which the cervix is completely covered by the baby’s placenta. Placenta previa causes frequent bleeds and even premature labor.

At 30 weeks, Hall went into labor. As a nurse, she knew what to expect but didn’t realize the seriousness of her condition.

“Once the surgery got started, I realized things were worse than I thought they were,” she says.

Hall started feeling dizzy and lightheaded as the surgical team worked to get the baby out.

A stay in the Piedmont NICU

Her daughter was born 10 weeks premature, and her lungs weren’t fully developed, so she was on many different devices to help her breathe.

“On the second night, she started to give up on breathing for herself and developed a hemothorax,” Hall says.

A hemothorax occurs when blood collects between the chest wall and the lung.

“We knew once we got over to the ICU that things were bad,” she says. “You don’t think they’re going to make it.” 

A nurse and a mom

“Being a nurse and a mom, it was hard going in there. I saw my baby with all these tubes coming out of her and that made it much harder to accept what was going on,” she says.

Leaving her newborn in the NICU was difficult.

“I was still really weak and on many medications, and then I had to leave her,” she says. “I saw the nurses and the way they treated her when I was there, and it was great, but I cried the whole way home because I knew I couldn’t be there 24/7.”

A Valentine’s Day miracle

Fortunately, thanks to the great care of the NICU team, Hall got to bring her baby daughter home on Valentine’s Day.

“She smiles, she’s learning to clap, she tries to give you slobber kisses. She’s meeting all of her milestones.”

Hall says she sees nursing differently now after being a patient and the mother of a patient.

“After being a NICU mom, you see all of the care the nurses give daily and how much it takes for them to do everything for the baby. It gives you a whole other perspective, being on the other side as a patient.”

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