Nurses are special people. They don’t do their jobs for praise or money. They do it to help people. And when a teen boy turned up at the hospital with a shoebox baby, God used dedicated nurse Jeanie to make all the difference in this little one’s life! Neonatal nurse Jeanie had been working as a neonatal nurse at SwedishAmerican hospital for ten years. She was in the special care nursery when she noticed a young boy in a hooded sweatshirt holding a shoebox and crying. His terrified face told her something was very wrong. She saw a teen boy holding a box and walking toward the special care nursery.
It turned out the shoebox contained a three-pound infant wearing a doll’s onesie and swaddled in a dishtowel. The infant was born six weeks prematurely and lacked the warmth and nutrients necessary to survive. Joseph and the medical staff treated him for hypothermia, dehydration, and an infection from the household scissors used to cut his umbilical cord. When the baby boy stabilized the next day, he had another visitor. Joseph saw a teen girl outside the nursery who wished to see the baby she planned to relinquish under the state’s “Safe Haven” law, to protect babies later put up for adoption.
Joseph comforted the scared teen girl and assured her she’d take care of the baby. She led the teen mom to the baby in his incubator and reminded her that she had done everything to save the infant’s life. The then-15-year-old mom, Cherish, looked at Joseph and felt an instant connection. This connection made Cherish return to the nursery daily to check on her son and drop off breast milk. Joseph supported Cherish when she decided to put the baby up for adoption. The scared teen mom confided in Joseph and relayed her story. She explained that her family didn’t know about her pregnancy, and she gave birth to her son in her bedroom.
Cherish had met a boy at 13, two years older than her. The two had entered into a relationship and were practically inseparable. Then, one day, she suspected she might be pregnant and hid the details from her family, afraid of their reaction. The terrified teen parents decided to leave the baby at a hospital, where staff could tend to him, under the state’s “Safe Haven” law, which allowed parents to leave a newborn at a hospital, fire station, or police station without fear of criminal or civil liability. Cherish also placed a handwritten note inside the box that said, “We love you, we are just not able to raise you. We want his name to be Allen, and we will hope to be able to see you again. God will be watching over you (sic).”
