They saved her baby; now this mom is saving others

Seven years ago, Lauren Harper faced every parent's worst fear. Her newborn son, Tyler, was sick.

She didn't know it at the time, but Tyler was slowly starving because of a condition in infants that blocks food from entering the small intestine.

Though he weighed a healthy 10.9 pounds at birth, he soon began losing weight, vomiting after nearly every feeding and becoming seriously dehydrated. His frantic parents took him first to IU Health West Hospital, where he was diagnosed with pyloric stenosis — a serious but treatable condition that affects about one in every 300 babies and is most often seen in first-born males.

It would be the next day before a bed opened at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health for 1-month-old Tyler.

Harper and her then-husband, Damon, didn't sleep for 48 hours as they fretted for their son. As a first-time mom, Harper couldn't help wondering what she had done wrong. Would her baby be OK?

Amid the turmoil, she remembers the calm reassurance provided by nurses who were caring for her little boy around the clock.

"I watched the nurses care for Tyler like he was their own," Harper said. "I wanted to do that for someone else's child, and I knew that I could."

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Tyler was released from the hospital the day after a successful surgery that corrected his condition, but in that time, Harper had what she calls an "aha" moment. The nurses at Riley inspired her to change her life.

Within six months of Tyler's surgery, Harper, who already had a degree from IU's Kelley School of Business, had quit her job managing two car rental businesses — and enrolled in nursing school.

Today, Tyler is a healthy, active 7-year-old counting down the days until the end of first grade at Eagle Elementary in Brownsburg. And his mom is a nurse at the same hospital where his life was saved.

The two are sitting side by side recently in a small playroom at Riley, near where Harper works in the pre- and post-operative care unit. Before that, she worked nearly three years as an operating room nurse. Eventually, she intends to get a master's degree and work as a nurse practitioner.

As she describes the worry of those early days and the crying jags (both hers and Tyler's), her son gives her the side eye occasionally, as only a 7-year-old can. Of course, he has no memory of his stay in the hospital as a newborn. "I didn't even know what 2 plus 2 was," he volunteers.

But he has a reminder of the surgery that so scared his parents. It's a tiny scar by his belly button that he proudly shows to friends. He has no trouble eating these days, reeling off his favorite foods: chocolate cereal, french toast sticks, bacon, eggs, strawberries and pizza.

He's not afraid of hospitals, he said, "because the only thing I'd probably get is a shot, and I faced my fears when I got my flu shot."

Now when anxious parents come to the hospital, worried for their child, Harper often sees herself reflected in their eyes.

"I've seen that look; I've been there before," she said. "The worst is when dads cry. I can keep it together when moms cry, but when you see a dad start to cry ... it's just the fear, the unknown, the uncertainty. You're letting someone you don't know take your kid and you have to give them that trust."

Rachel Janitz says there's no better person for parents to put their trust in. Janitz and Harper started their nursing careers together on the same day in the operating room at Riley nearly three years ago and became fast friends.

They laughed and cried together during the nine-month orientation. "It's not for everyone," Janitz said. "You definitely find your friends. And you find the one that lifts you higher and is always there for you. Lauren is selfless in such a way that it radiates to everyone around her."

Janitz, who moonlights as a cheerleader for the Indianapolis Colts, says Harper is her biggest cheerleader, the one who makes her want to be better on and off the job.

"I learn from her; she finds a way to persist in any hardship or despite any curve ball life throws at her."

And she's a natural as a nurse, Janitz said, a true patient advocate because of her personal experience.

"She knows what it feels like for that parent to be vulnerable and to hand over their most precious thing in life. When she says, 'I'm going to take great care of your daughter or son,' parents can feel it."

Harper, who describes nursing as a calling for her, not a job, says some days are harder than others, particularly on the rare occasion when a child dies. Those days are "awful, just awful."

But even on her worst days, she never wishes she was back working in sales.

"There's so much more good that I get to experience here," she said. "I feel very blessed to be working at the place where my son was so well-cared for. This is definitely what I was called to do."

Call IndyStar reporter Maureen Gilmer at (317) 444-6879. Email maureen.gilmer@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter: @MaureenCGilmer.