Four months before she was scheduled to give birth, Andrea Callahan began bleeding internally. Her daughter, who weighed fewer than two pounds, was delivered by emergency caesarean section.
Then Callahan had to deal with a blood-clotting disorder. The outlook for both mother and baby was dire.
“They didn’t think I’d live through the night and they thought the same about Kelsey, who was only 27 weeks when she was born. They didn’t know how to save babies that small,” said the Alpharetta resident.
But both mother and daughter beat the odds. In a few weeks, Kelsey will graduate from college and Callahan uses her experience to help patients at Northside Hospital-Forsyth.
The 35-year nurse recently shared her past with a patient who delivered a premature infant who was being cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit.
“My colleague, Carolyn Nelson, told me there was a mom with a premature baby and asked if I could share my story about Kelsey,” Callahan said. “I went in and introduced myself and we talked for about an hour. I told her what it was like for me when my daughter had to spend four months in (the) NICU.
“I also explained what all the equipment meant, because it can be so overwhelming with all the machines and monitors whirring. All you see is this very tiny baby and you wonder how it’s going to survive.”
Callahan visited the mother every night and often spent time with the baby after the woman was discharged from the hospital. Over the course of several months, Callahan became close with the mother, keeping in touch via email after the baby went home.
“Andrea exemplifies caring and going above and beyond,” said Nelson, who nominated the nurse. “She was the perfect person to comfort and calm this distraught mom. I remember Andrea spending extra time with this mom and visiting her baby in the middle of the night and on her days off. After the baby was released, Andrea has still stayed in touch, sharing wisdom, encouragement and a listening ear — mom-to-mom.”
When her husband lost his job five years ago, Callahan returned to nursing after being a stay-at-home mother. Although she didn’t want to work in the intensive care unit — where she had spent 21 years previously — an internship for mother-baby care caught her attention.
“I realized I went there for a reason, as if this was where God wanted me to go,” she said. “It is never more obvious than when I have a mother whose baby is in (the) NICU. When moms are separated from the babies, there’s no way to describe it, and I know exactly what it was like to have a baby over there.”
Callahan credits a strong faith for helping her work with patients.
“My strong belief in God carries me through every night when I go to work,” she said. “I never know what He has in store for me, but I know there are blessed events. When I leave in the morning at the end of a 12-hour shift, I know He’s helped me do a great job.”
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