INDIANAPOLIS — At Community Hospital North of Indianapolis, neonatal intensive care nurse Katrina Mullen has a reputation for going above and beyond. But the lengths he went to for a set of triplets and their 14-year-old mother were beyond compare.
“At that age and with all three babies being premature and sick, it’s going to be a tough road for her,” Mullen told CBS News.
Mullen, once a teenage mother herself, knew that this young mother, Sharia Small, did not have a stable home life. So even after leaving the kids, Mullen continues to visit them and shower them with gifts.
“I mean, I loved her, I loved them, and I wanted to see her be a successful parent,” Mullen said.
Support was new for small.
“He was right there,” said Short. “He was there emotionally. He was there physically. He was there mentally.”
However, the minors still did not have a suitable home for children, and eventually, the Indiana Department of Child Services intervened. They started looking for a foster family, or multiple foster families, because finding a place for a teenage mother and her three children would be nearly impossible.
And that’s when Small got a text message from Mullen that simply read, “I can’t wait for you to come home.”
Never mind that Mullen already had five kids of her own, she adopted these other four without a second thought.
“It’s been exhausting,” Mullen said. “It was crazy and hectic. But I never once sat down and said I wish I hadn’t done it.”
Just a few months ago, Mullen adopted Sharia, who just finished high school and now plans to go to college, all thanks to the nurse who went above and beyond.
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Steve Hartman
