First of all, thank you so much for being here you represent--
I think there were 65 nurses and doctors who did this, right?
So thank you for Team A or something.
So thank you for being here, and thank all of the ones
at home who are the other part of the 65.
OK, So you know I'm from New Orleans and hurricanes,
it's unfortunately-- hits that city all the time--
you're familiar with that.
But you hear Ida is coming, and everybody is fleeing,
you decide to stay.
I mean, why?
So we're actually preparing for Ida
even before we know Ida's coming.
We set up a list, we put it up for volunteers
to sign up for what you refer to as Team A. That's
our essential team that comes in whenever there's a disaster
or anything happening that we need to bring a team in for.
And so it's volunteers and those are the people
that want to be there and take care of our patients
where everybody else is evacuated.
It's incredible.
And so you're eight months pregnant, right?
I am.
OK.
And so, most people eight months pregnant they're like,
look, I'd love to stay and help.
I want to do this, but I think I should go home.
And yet you stayed.
I did.
So, like Paula said, we started preparing in April for it.
And when we talked originally I was
going to be Team B, the team that comes in
and relieve Team A. But as we got closer
and we saw that it was going to be a really bad storm,
I had to stay.
There was no other place I wanted to be.
And my husband's a police officer,
so he was going to be activated.
And I didn't want to be home alone, so--
I mean, with her coming, got them--
I figured it was the best place for me to be.
Yeah.
Well, amazing.
And your husband's a police officer.
He is, yeah.
You all do a lot of good, you and your husband,
that's amazing.
OK, so you had obviously families at home
that you were leaving at home, and that
must have been hard to make that decision, obviously.
It's so-- it sets in so much when I'm driving into the city
and there's a mandatory evacuation,
so everyone is coming the opposite way
and driving out as I'm going in.
But I know that it's the right thing to do.
that's why I chose the nursing profession--
to take care of the babies--
and so I do what to do.
It's amazing.
So you're the only car going in one direction,
everybody's going that way.
But you must feel like, is what you are, a hero.
You're going in that direction.
[CLAPPING]
I mean, really, that's all you can call it is heroic
that you're doing that.
So how many babies were in the hospital when you all
were there?
So we had 35 babies when we activated
Team A. We had a few more that added to it during the storm.
People were giving birth during that.
Yeah.
Babies don't stop for hurricanes.
They don't--
I don't know much about them.
They do keep coming.
But we started with 35 babies.
We actually had four parents that stayed with us.
That's a hard decision for our parents to have to make is,
am I going to stay with my infant,
or am I going to evacuate?
I remember a conversation with one of our moms
and she was like, she wanted to be with her baby,
but she also had a grandmother that she needed
to evacuate and get to safety.
And so it's really hard for our families to deal with that.
But that's the trust that they have in y'all.
That they're trusting you to stay with their babies.
Yeah.
We definitely pride ourselves, as NICU nurses,
with the relationship we develop with the parents.
This is the most precious thing in anyone's life
is their child.
And they trust us to take care of them,
so we really like to foster those relationships
and do what we can to go that extra mile.
Especially during the storm, but all the time.
Well, I hope that when these babies grow up,
I hope you get to see them so that they
get to see who took care of them during something like that.
We usually do keep in touch with our NICU babies.
Yeah, it's amazing.
All right, more with the incredible nurses
from New Orleans after this.
We'll be right back.
We're back with four amazing nurses from Ochsner Baptist
hospital in New Orleans.
And so obviously there was a lot of devastation
and a lot of damage all throughout the city
and outside the city, and some of your homes
were damaged as well, right?
Yes.
Mostly all of our houses have some damage,
some form of cleanup to do.
And that's another part that's really hard
is that we go in for Team A not really knowing
what we're going to come back to whenever we get home.
And we're there, the storm hits, and then
people are finding out that they have damage to their houses,
that they have flooding.
But we are still doing our job, and still loving our babies,
and taking care of them, and putting
all that aside to do what we have to do every day.
It's amazing what you all do.
It's amazing.
All right, well, I love and everyone
loves nurses and what you do.
You're selfless and it's amazing.
84 Lumber is a woman-owned company
that supplies building materials in 250
stores across the country.
They love giving back to their communities
and are ready to help rebuild homes and businesses impacted
by Hurricane Ida.
They heard about your hospital's employee assistance fund, which
directly helps health care workers like you
and they need assistance with recovery efforts.
So, today, 84 Lumber is donating $100,000 to the Ochsner
employee assistance fund.
[CLAPPING]
You are welcome.
Go to our website to find out how you can help those impacted
by Hurricane Ida.