It takes a village to raise a child. This age-old wisdom rings true for all parents, but especially those raising a sick child. Support from the wider community often means the difference between basic survival and parenting with renewed hope.
Videos by InspireMore
If you’ve ever doubted that even one individual can make a big difference, meet Carly Miller: neonatal nurse at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, and new godmother to baby Conrad.
Carly was the first nurse to care for Conrad after he was admitted to the NICU in December 2021 as an infant. Diagnosed with a rare birth defect called lower urinary tract obstructions (LUTO), he was being kept alive through medical sedation and a ventilator.
Over the next six months, Carly would continue to nurse Conrad, becoming an expert on his new dialysis machine and frequently providing exclusive care. She also performed daily tasks like swaddling Conrad and rocking him to sleep, helping his first-time parents, Austyn Evans and Braden Williams, adjust to caring for a medically challenging child. It was this warm bedside manner, along with her ability to foster a sense of normalcy, that ultimately convinced Conrad’s parents to pop the big question.
“One of the first things I remember Carly saying was not how sick my child was but how cute he was. She’s talking about his cheeks, everything that I expected having a child would be like,” Austin said. “Everything we thought we were going to get robbed of, she kind of gave back to us in a sense.”
Carly was floored when Conrad’s parents approached her with flowers and a handwritten card reading, “Will you be my godmother?” After confirming that Austyn was, in fact, “serious” about her request, Carly gratefully accepted the promotion from intensive care nurse to chosen family member.
“I just feel very honored,” Carly said to Good Morning America. “It’s something I never expected and the fact that they wanted me to do that for him means the absolute world.”
“We could not do it without Carly, but the coolest part is her relationship with Conrad,” said Austyn. “She has been there for him since day one and there’s no one else that has other than myself and his dad.”
After spending so much time together in the NICU, Carly and Conrad have established a close bond that continues to grow outside hospital walls with regular visits and playdates. Conrad will soon undergo a kidney transplant. But he won’t go through it alone. Carly will be right there to support Conrad and his parents throughout their ongoing health journey.
“I can’t say it enough how lucky I am that they let me be a part of this,” Carly said.
Austyn, for her part, is equally thrilled to have met such a kindred spirit.
“I think sometimes you meet people in your life and something extraordinary happens, and you build a lifelong friendship,” she said. “For us it happened at Texas Children’s NICU.”
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