Angela Farnan is a primary charge nurse at OSF Children’s Hospital in Illinois where she recently went above and beyond for one of her patients. 1-year old Blaze was born with HLHS which is a birth defect that affects normal blood flow through the heart. Babies born with HLHS require surgeries soon after birth.
Blaze had his first procedure when he was just three days old and had a second surgery just months after. The one-year-old will require a third surgery and may even need a heart transplant in the future. Not long after the second surgery, his birth mother asked Angela if she would permanently adopt her son. “She was crying and said, ‘I just don’t want anyone to feel like I’m a bad mom.’ I said she just made the best decision as a mom and there was no question that she loves Blaze.”
Angela was never able to have children of her own but often calls her tiny patients in the Pediatric Intensive Care, her babies.
She says Blaze’s biological parents lived far away and did not have the resources to commute back and forth or pay for his medical bills. After speaking with his biological family, Angela requested short-term guardianship of Blaze. Blaze's mother said she and her husband discussed this at length and were worried about being viewed as bad parents, but due to financial hardships and other issues, they felt strongly that Angela was the right person to care for Blaze.
Angela and her husband Rick have officially become Blaze’s new parents and could not be more excited to welcome the sweet boy into their lives permanently.