{"id":2076,"date":"2018-05-22T13:11:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-22T13:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/developmenttwo.marymount.edu\/blog\/son%c2%92s-health-issues-inspire-parents-to-earn-marymount-accelerated-nursing-degrees\/"},"modified":"2018-05-22T13:11:00","modified_gmt":"2018-05-22T13:11:00","slug":"son%c2%92s-health-issues-inspire-parents-to-earn-marymount-accelerated-nursing-degrees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marymount.edu\/blog\/son%c2%92s-health-issues-inspire-parents-to-earn-marymount-accelerated-nursing-degrees\/","title":{"rendered":"Son\u0092s Health Issues Inspire Parents to Earn Marymount Accelerated Nursing Degrees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Being a parent guides Adam Mann\u0092s approach to nursing and inspired him to change careers after his son struggled to stay alive during the first months of his life. The Arlington resident spoke at Marymount University\u0092s Malek School of Health Profession<\/a>\u0092s nursing pinning ceremony Sunday morning, then graduated that afternoon with his second bachelor\u0092s degree, just 16 months after his wife, Lauren, completed the same accelerated nursing program.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Diagnosed with intrauterine growth restriction, Isaac Mann was delivered six weeks early and weighed just over four pounds. The young parents anticipated a short stay in the neonatal intensive care unit, but a few days after birth, Isaac began to have persistent bradycardia, a very slow heartbeat.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\n\u0093During severe episodes, Isaac\u0092s heart could go up to six seconds without a beat, his limbs would go limp, and he would turn a dusky gray,\u0094 Adam said.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\nIt was the beginning of a five-month medical odyssey that included a three-month hospital stay, a discharge with a home heart monitor, readmission and heart surgery.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\n\u0093My first experience of fatherhood was an unusual one, to say the least, but I learned some very important lessons,\u0094 Adam said. \u0093Every father wants to protect his child, but I had to accept that I would not be able to.\u0094
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\nThe couple needed other people \u0097 many of them nurses \u0097 to help keep their son Isaac alive. Adam also had a hard time grasping what he was being told about his son\u0092s condition, and relied on family members. Both of Adam\u0092s parents are nurses, and his father-in-law is a doctor of veterinary medicine.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\n\u0093Although it was a time without a lot of answers, at least they knew the right questions to ask,\u0094 Adam said.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\nNow five years old, Isaac has two younger siblings, Lydia, three, and Caleb, eight months. Isaac is healthy, though nonverbal and developmentally at the level of an 18-month-old.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\n\u0093He\u0092s a really happy kid and in a lot of ways he\u0092s really lucky,\u0094 Adam said prior to Sunday\u0092s ceremony.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\nHis wife, who had earned her first bachelor\u0092s degree in photography at Virginia Commonwealth University and worked as a photographer, began taking online courses at NOVA (Northern Virginia Community College) to better understand her son\u0092s medical condition. She eventually transferred to MU\u0092s accelerated nursing program. The rigorous program, for students with a previous bachelor\u0092s degree and required prerequisites, is completed in just under 16 months. She\u0092s now a nurse at Children\u0092s National Medical Center\u0092s heart and kidney unit, where Isaac was a patient.
\n\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u0093I like feeling that I make a difference,\u0094 Lauren said. \u0093I have the most contact with the patients of anyone on the medical team and can advocate for them.\u0094
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\nShe works with babies with congenital heart defects. Not only are their infants getting discharged from heart units, it\u0092s often the first time the mothers are taking care of a baby.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\n\u0093I get to teach them how to be confident and take the baby home,\u0094 she said. \u0093It is so rewarding!\u0094
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\nAdam, an English and finance major at Notre Dame who had worked in accounting for a non-profit, began the accelerated nursing program a month after his wife graduated in December 2016. After an internship on the pediatric unit of the National Institutes of Health\u0092s Clinical Center this past semester, he will begin work in August at the Cardiac ICU at Children\u0092s, another unit where Isaac had been a patient.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\nAdam and Lauren are 2008 graduates of Bishop O\u0092Connell High School in Arlington. They said they never could have gone through the challenging MU program \u0097 while raising three young children \u0097 without the help and support of their families, both of whom live nearby.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\nDuring his speech Sunday, Adam thanked MU President Matthew Shank, Provost William Ehmann and Dr. Michelle Walters-Edwards<\/a>, interim associate dean of the Malek School of Health Professions<\/a>. He also praised the faculty and administrative staff \u0093for the countless hours they have put into preparing us for our future nursing careers.\u0094
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\nSixty-two graduates received their Bachelor of Science degrees in nursing<\/a> (31 through the accelerated track) and 15 graduate students received Master of Science degrees in nursing<\/a>. Ashley Achiampong served as master of ceremonies for the nursing pinning.\u00a0Kadie Aaron, representing traditional nursing students, spoke. Lisa Shine, Class of 2014, a nurse at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and a lab instructor at MU, was the alumni speaker.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0
\n\u0093All of us are going to encounter patients and family members as confused and overwhelmed as I was,\u0094 Adam said in closing. \u0093Most of them will not have the benefit of a family of nursing and medical experts. Some of them will have no one. Our life\u0092s work, from this point forward, must be to champion the interests of these and all of our patients like they were our own children, mothers, fathers and grandparents.\u0094<\/p>\n

For more on Adam and Lauren Mann’s story, watch their segment featured on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n