Baby Born Prematurely To Drug-Addicted Parents & Left In Hospital For Months With No Visitors Is Adopted By Nurse
Liz Smith, 45, had always wanted to be a mother but suffered from infertility and was told she was not a good candidate for IVF.
The same day she was given the devastating news, she happened to meet baby Gisele, who weighed1lb 14oz and had health problems when she was born at 29 weeks to a drug-addicted mother and father.
Gisele had no visitors for months as nurses looked after her in a neonatal intensive care unit, and her future appeared to be uncertain until Ms Smith was introduced.
Staff at Franciscan Children's hospital in the US city of Boston, Massachusetts, were paying special attention to Gisele, who was on a ventilator in NICU and faced complications such as an oral aversion after being weaned off the drugs taken by her mother.
One day at work, a nurse asked Ms Smith if she had met the infant.
Ms Smith told CNN: "I said, 'No, why?' She said, 'She needs a medical foster home and you two are the perfect pair'."
She had never thought of foster care or adoption.
Ms Smith instantly bonded with Gisele and began to visit her regularly.
The nurse told the hospital's blog: “I went to see her every day. It was kind of my reward after a long workday.”
The state of Massachusetts gained custody of the girl when she was three-months-old in October 2016, and a few months later Ms Smith volunteered to foster her.
Gisele, who was diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome as a result of being exposed to drugs during the pregnancy, went to live with Ms Smith in April 2017 when she no longer required specialist care in hospital.
Gisele's birth parents had supervised visits, but the visits decreased over time and the goal changed from reuniting the family to adoption, the blog said.
Ms Smith told CNN: "It was an emotional roller coaster. When I initially started fostering her, the goal was reunification with her birth parents."
However, Gisele's birth mum and dad lost their parental rights in June last year when the state ruled they could not adequately care for the girl.
