Advocate Health Care nurse reunites with NICU patient 17 years later

LIBERTYVILLE – Kelsey Ortiz and Pam Allison are nurses at Advocate Condell Immediate Care Centers who have much more in common than their profession.

Ortiz and Allison met 17 years ago at Advocate Children’s Hospital when Ortiz was a new mom and Allison was her newborn son’s nurse.

In 2007, Ortiz was 24 weeks pregnant when her water broke. She was scared she was going to lose her first child. After 15 days of strict bed rest, Ortiz started to hemorrhage and needed an emergency C-section.

Ortiz’s son, Joseph, was born at 26 weeks. He weighed just 2 pounds, 5 ounces, and was 13 inches tall. Joseph needed a high level of care, so he was transferred to the NICU at Advocate Children’s Hospital. This is where Ortiz met Allison, who was assigned to be Joseph’s primary nurse. Allison took excellent care of Joseph throughout his four-and-a-half month stay in the NICU.

“Pam was a lifesaver, a true living guardian angel to care for Joseph. If I couldn’t be there and she was, I knew he was in good hands,” Ortiz said in a news release. “She was an advocate not only for Joseph, but for me, too, and she never judged me for being a young mom. I was only 20 when I had Joseph.”

At the time Ortiz was pregnant she was studying to become a nurse. Ortiz’s experience having Joseph and seeing how Allison cared for him only strengthened her belief that nursing was her calling.

Ortiz’s nursing path led her to Advocate Health Care, where she started working in the pediatrics unit 11 years ago. Most recently, Ortiz transferred to the Advocate Condell Immediate Care Center in Gurnee, where she crossed paths with Allison.

Allison hadn’t seen Joseph since he was a child, so Ortiz decided to surprise her. She brought Joseph to the ICC with flowers in hand so he could meet the nurse who helped save his life.

“The NICU can be a very scary place and sometimes when you’re caring for patients you don’t know what sticks with them. When I would discharge kids, I usually would never see them again or know how they were doing, except those I have developed a relationship with,” Allison said. “So when I saw Joseph, I was kind of starstruck. … He was so little and now he’s so tal, and very healthy and smart. Kelsey did a great job raising him and I knew she would.”