Twin brothers Kaiden and Paxton Day began their lives as preemies at Methodist Mansfield Medical Center, and they’re just as grateful for the NICU staff’s lifesaving care as their mother was 16 years ago and to this day.
“How can I live life and not teach my children gratitude?” says their mother, Kissy Day, who returns to the hospital each year with her boys to thank the nurses. “The team at Methodist Mansfield helped give me that opportunity.”
Kissy singled out NICU nurse Ethel Tate, RN, who cared for twins twice, first when Paxton required incubation and again after Kaiden acquired a life-threatening infection at 28 days, when he weighed just 5 pounds, 2 ounces.
“She’s family to me,” Kaiden says. “She saved my life, and I love and appreciate her more than she knows.”
Kaiden and Paxton both needed TLC in the NICU after being born at 34 weeks.
FIRST TRIPS TO THE NICU
Methodist Mansfield had been open barely a year when Kissy arrived to give birth to her boys at just 34 weeks.
Kissy remembers the challenging pregnancy, carrying twins in a bicornuate uterus, a rare condition where the uterus is heart-shaped and smaller than normal.
“There wasn’t a lot of space for one baby, much less two,” Kissy says.
The boys were born one minute apart on Oct. 23, 2007. Kaiden weighed a shade over 5 pounds, and Paxton was barely 4 pounds.
Since the boys were preemies, Kissy had to feed them every two hours.
After a few days in the hospital, Paxton couldn’t maintain a healthy body temperature and needed to visit the NICU. He was placed in an incubator for the next few days.
Around the eighth day, Kaiden and Paxton were healthy enough that they could leave the hospital.
“We gave Kissy all of the discharge teaching, making sure she was very comfortable with the boys and showing her what to look for,” Ethel says.
But that would not be the last time Ethel saw the Day family.
To this day, Kissy praises the care her boys received at Methodist Mansfield 17 years ago.
ETHEL’S SPECIAL TOUCH
Around the one-month mark, Kissy noticed Kaiden was unusually pale and extremely irritable, prompting a return visit to Methodist Mansfield.
Nurses were unable to start an IV because Kaiden’s veins were so small. That’s when Ethel was called to the ER to help the staff.
“I could hear it in Kissy’s voice. She was frantic — she was like, ‘Ethel, my baby is so sick, I don’t know what’s wrong with him and he’s not even moving,’” Ethel recalls.
“They poked him so many times and there was no reaction,” Kissy says. “He was limp.”
Kaiden had bacterial meningitis, a life-threatening infection that inflames the membranes that protect the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms include stiff neck, high fever, sensitivity to light, confusion, headaches, and vomiting.
After many unsuccessful attempts before her, Ethel was able to start the IV and get antibiotics flowing into her tiny patient.
She not only saved a life, but made three lifelong friends and sparked a tradition for the ages.
How it started with Kaiden and Paxton, and how it’s going with Ethel and Kaiden.
A LIFELONG TRADITION
Ethel has become more than a nurse to the Days, who visit her whenever they can to show appreciation.
“It’s one way that we get to honor those who helped us,” Paxton says.
And their mom says she will be forever grateful to the doctors, nurses, and everyone else at Methodist Mansfield who made her family whole. That starts with a special NICU nurse.
“I have always told Kaiden that Ethel saved his life that day!” Kissy says.
Ethel is just as excited to see Kissy and her sons whenever they stop by — or any other patient she’s had during nearly three decades as a NICU nurse.
Now the twins are in high school, driving, working, and well on their way to adulthood — and they are still grateful for their friend Ethel.
“It’s amazing,” Ethel says. “You understand how important this job is when you see these babies get to live, grow up, and become adults.”
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