NICU nurse Katrina Mullen knew finding a foster home for a 14-year-old mother who had just delivered triplets would be impossible.
“No one was going to take a teen mom and her preemie triplets,” says Mullen.
So Mullen, a neonatal nurse at Community Hospital North in Indianapolis, Indiana and mother of five, officially adopted the teen mom, Shariya Small and her triplets – more than two years after the pair met when she gave birth. Daily Nurse is proud to honor Mullen as our Nurse of the Week.
Small was in the 8th grade when she gave birth to Serenitee, Samari, and Sarayah in 2020. The triplets were premature, born at just 26 weeks, and spent more than five months in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Community Hospital North.
A Bond Develops
During their time in the NICU, Mullen noticed the young mom visited her babies alone, not appearing to have much of a support system. “She’d be there alone for days at a time sitting at her babies’ bedside,” she says.
At first, Small did not want to open up about her life, but the teen mom eventually developed a special bond with Mullen. That changed after she learned that Mullen had her first child at 16 and had given it up for adoption. Before they were discharged, she gave Small her phone number and encouraged her to call if she needed anything.
Their experiences bonded the two moms, and Mullen began helping to care for the babies and Small by giving her advice and showing her how to care for the infants properly.
The two kept in touch, and Mullen eventually visited Small at her home in Kokomo. That’s when the nurse realized Small’s situation — she was sleeping on a couch, and her children were sleeping together in a playpen.
“It was not a place for her to raise babies,” she says.
Mullen also noticed that one of the babies, Samari, did not seem well. He was later hospitalized and diagnosed with failure to thrive, a condition related to infants or children being underweight for their age.
A case worker from the Department of Social Services later called and informed her that Small and the babies were being removed from the home they were living in and that Small had requested to live with Mullen.
Family Ever After
“I just kept thinking, ‘I have to do this.’ I knew Shariya was intelligent and resilient, and she needed a safe place to put her roots,” she says. “I knew it would be hard, but we’d figure it out.”
For 688 days, Mullen fostered Small and her three children in the home she shares with her three younger children, SeQuayvion, 16, ShaKovon, 14, and JJ, 7.
Small eventually graduated from an alternative high school and learned all she could from Mullen about caring for her children.
Two months ago, Mullen’s adoption of Small was finalized. Mullen has also adopted her 2-year-old triplets, according to the reports.
To help “build a financial cushion” for her children, Mullen has created a GoFundMe campaign. More than $35,500 has been raised through the fundraiser since it launched.
Mullen hopes to use some of the money for Small’s “future college experience and adventures this coming fall.”
Nominate a Nurse of the Week! Every Wednesday, DailyNurse.com features a nurse making a difference in the lives of their patients, students, and colleagues. We encourage you to nominate a nurse who has impacted your life as the next Nurse of the Week, and we’ll feature them online and in our weekly newsletter.
