NICU baby returns to Milwaukee hospital – as NICU nurse
NICU baby returns to Milwaukee hospital – as NICU nurse
She started her life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, or NICU, at Ascension St. Joseph. Now, she works there, helping families in a similar situation.
MILWAUKEE - She started her life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, or NICU, at Ascension St. Joseph. Now, she works there, helping families in a similar situation.
NICU baby…
The backstory:
Before she ever cared for a tiny patient at Ascension St. Joseph's NICU, Megan White was one. She was born at 29 weeks and weighed 2 pounds, 8 ounces.
Megan White
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"I always knew I wanted to work with babies and children," White, a NICU nurse at Ascension St. Joseph Hospital, said.
White spent the early days of her life fighting to survive and was placed on a ventilator. On her due date, she was released and has lived a healthy life ever since.
"When I was growing up my parents would describe me as the miracle baby of the family," White said.
Megan White
…NICU nurse
Why you should care:
For the past 16 years, White has spent her career helping other babies do the same.
"It’s really an amazing experience to give back to my birthplace that helped me get the best start in life," White said.
In the Ascension St. Joseph Hospital NICU, White is working alongside the same doctors who took care of her.
"It is that special that someone that came from an environment like this, with problems related to being born early, did absolutely fantastic (and) decides to come and give back," said Stephen Ragatz, neonatologist at Ascension St. Joseph.
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Dr. Ragatz has worked at the hospital for nearly 45 years. He took care of White in 1984 and said watching his patient grow up to become a nurse is a reminder of how far babies can grow.
"If folks know that if they ever have a need for the care of a sick baby, there are doctors and nurses and other health professionals that are absolutely prepared to deal with it," Ragatz said.
Portions of this article were formatted using A.I. FOX6’s Christina Van Zelst and an editor reviewed it for accuracy and tone prior to publishing.
The Source: Information in this story was gathered from interviews with Megan White, Stephen Ragatz and Ascension St. Joseph Hospital.