Cradled in care: How seven days spurred a lifetime of gratitude
Patient Story
“Should we call a Code Pink?”
Geoff Johnston remembers hearing those words from a nurse moments after his wife, Allie, gave birth to son Grayson at Waterloo Regional Health Network @ Midtown (formerly Grand River Hospital KW Campus).
Geoff knew what Code Pink meant – a life-threatening pediatric or neonatal emergency – and he went numb as he wondered what warranted the question.
“No,” the obstetrician said, immediately calming Geoff’s fears. “He’s going to be OK.”
Grayson arrived a month early via scheduled C-section after Allie developed high blood pressure. Upon arrival, Grayson started grunting as he tried to get air into his underdeveloped lungs.
A respirologist rushed in to assess the newborn. Allie, confused by the kerfuffle, looked to Geoff for reassurance.
“I was freaked out, but I was also calmed by the staffs’ calmness,” Geoff says. “I looked at Allie and gave her a thumbs up."
I trusted the doctors and nurses were doing everything they needed to do.
Grayson went on CPAP for supplemental oxygen before being sent to on a neonatal intensive care (NICU) journey that would last the next seven days.
The first embrace
Allie didn’t know what to think. This wasn’t how she pictured her first moments of motherhood.
But she and Geoff found compassion in the NICU nurses, who explained everything Grayson was experiencing and urged Allie to get some rest. Grayson would be well cared for as she recovered from her surgery, they said.
Allie went back to the C-section recovery room for the night. When she and Geoff returned to the NICU the next morning, they got to hold their son for the first time.
“He felt so tiny, and there were wires and tubes everywhere,” Allie says. “But we were so grateful to feel him breathing on our chests.”
In the coming days, Grayson improved as a small hole in his lungs closed up. The wires and tubes began to disappear.
On Day 7, Allie and Geoff received the news they’d been waiting for: Grayson could go home.
“We were happy, we were excited, we were scared. But you look at him now and see how much he’s grown,” Allie says. “It’s amazing that he was ever in the NICU.”
Looking back
Grayson, now a typical strong-willed toddler, turned 2 in February.
Hanging in his bedroom is a name banner the NICU nurses made for him during his hospital stay. The banner serves as a daily reminder to Allie and Geoff of the exceptional care Grayson received.
It also reminds them of the donor-funded incubator from which the banner initially hung, and the other tools essential to his care.
“Those are expensive pieces of equipment that we wouldn’t have had without donors,” Geoff says. “That’s equipment that allowed Grayson to heal. But it also made it easier for the nurses to do their jobs.”
“And we felt that in the care we received,” Allie adds.
Every single nurse was gentle, kind, compassionate, supportive. They didn’t just care for Grayson. They cared about us as a family.
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