COLUMBUS, Ohio — Being born is usually a joyous occasion, but it’s the unusual circumstances of one woman’s birth that drove her to pursue a career she loves and giving her the chance to return to the place it all began.
What You Need To Know
- Hayley Good was born nearly four months early and weighed only 1 pound 9 ounces
- She spent the first four and a half months of her life in the NICU, and doctors told her parents that her life expectancy was short
- Good will soon work in the same NICU unit she was treated in as a preemie
Hayley Good enjoys nursing.
“I wanted to go into nursing,” she said. “I grew up knowing how much time I spent there as a patient.”
It all started when she was born nearly four months early and weighed only one pound nine ounces.
“That’s super early,” Good said. “You should not be born that early, and so everything was underdeveloped.”
Good had respiratory complications and cardiac problems. She spent the first four and a half months of her life in the NICU, and doctors told her parents that her life expectancy was short.
But she beat those odds and now says that those struggles gave her life purpose.
“I knew the effect that those nurses had on my life, caring for me,” Good said. “I just wanted to be able to give back to families and patients that are in the same situation.”
And now it’s all coming full circle. While she was studying nursing, she did an externship at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, and thanks to that experience, she’s now been offered a job to work in the same NICU unit she was treated in as a preemie.
“it’s definitely surreal,” she said. “Just knowing that being able to work in the NICU here and seeing patients that are just as tiny as I once was, that really does put it into perspective.”
Good just graduated from Cedarville University and will begin her career at Nationwide Children’s in July.