Nurse Adopts Newborn With Rare Condition After 18 Months Of Caring For Her In The Pediatric ICU

A pediatric ICU nurse, Amber Boyd, says that she immediately felt a bond with a newborn baby named Nicole who was born with a rare medical condition. The baby, a twin, was born with a condition in which her organs formed on the outside of her body. She needed constant medical care and her mother was not able to care for either of the twin babies. However, family members quickly stepped up to care for the healthy twin but the medical needs of Nicole were too much for the aunt so the newborn became a ward of the state. Amber cared for Nicole for 18 months before deciding to foster and ultimately adopt the baby she grew so attached to during her ICU shifts.

The Daily Mail reports that Amber Boyd was immediately drawn to a newborn baby in the pediatric ICU named Nicole that had become a ward of the state after her mother was unable to care for her. The little girl was born as a twin but family members were unable to provide the care Nicole would need due to her medical condition. Therefore, Nicole was left under the care of the state and the hospital.

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Nicole was born with a rare condition called omphalocele in which her organs from her stomach grew on the outside of her body. In Nicole’s case, her intestine, liver, gall bladder, and spleen grew in a sac outside her belly and required that the infant be sedated and paralyzed for almost the whole first year of her life until her health could improve enough to remain stable. Though Nicole was likely unaware, one pediatric ICU nurse, Amber Boyd, was constantly by her side and caring for her. She noted that when she first walked into the room and saw Nicole in the ICU, she had an intense bond with her.

“The first day I met her actually, I just remember walking into her room, just instantly feeling an attachment.”

As her primary care nurse, Amber says that she continued to bond with Nicole, and when her health was well enough for her to leave the hospital and the state began looking for a place to put the child, Amber immediately knew what she needed to do. Amber went home and talked to her husband Taylor who agreed that they should foster Nicole.

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Shortly after the newlywed couple shared their first wedding anniversary, they brought Nicole home and say that they knew it was right.

“It is like a perfect fit. I don’t know how to explain it, it was just right.”

After multiple surgeries, Amber says Nicole is doing better than doctors ever expected and that they do not believe she suffers any brain damage. She notes that Nicole is improving daily but still requires a tracheostomy to help with breathing and has a gastronomy tube in her abdomen. Despite her afflictions, Nicole is now walking on her own and Amber says she is a fighter.

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Knowing that their family wouldn’t be complete without Nicole, Amber and Taylor decided to officially adopt Nicole and the adoption was finalized in February of this year. Now, Amber says she wants to foster more children with special medical needs to provide a safe place for them to grow and thrive. In fact, in a GoFundMe page set up by Amber’s sister, it notes that Amber and Taylor have already fostered another child with similar needs to Nicole and are now hoping to purchase an SUV to fit their expanding family.

“In the recent months, they began to foster a second child with similar sever medical needs. They want to provide a happy home to those kids who often times don’t have the opportunity to experience a normal life. “

[Image via GoFundMe]