It’s been almost three decades since Samantha “Sammy” Warwick entered the world and spent nearly the first three months of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Children’s Minnesota’s Minneapolis hospital.
Sammy was born three months premature, weighing just 1 pound and 15 ounces. Sammy’s original due date was supposed to be on Halloween, but her early delivery created a scary ordeal that would eventually have a happy ending.
“I needed time to grow and develop into a full-term infant. I needed time to develop my brain, lungs and feeding habits,” Sammy recalled when looking back on her time in the NICU.
Sammy’s mom, Terri, also reflected on those early memories. “Going to the NICU to see her was hard, it broke my heart to see her that way. It was hard because I was able to see her in the incubator box but could only touch very little at the time.”
Sammy’s mom likely never imagined it at the time, but her daughter’s story would eventually come full circle. Years later, Sammy began a career as a registered nurse at The Mother Baby Center at Mercy with Children’s Minnesota’s NICU in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, where she cares for a new generation of vulnerable newborns.
