Heather Jowers

My name  is Heather Jowers, and I was born at Sacred Heart Hospital, September 11, 1986.  I was born six weeks early with VATER syndrome.  Doctors told my parents that they expected me to live about three hours.  I will be twenty-three this year.  

My hospital stay at Sacred Heart was about eighteen months.  I spent my first birthday in the hospital with another baby named Patricia.  I also spent many hours in the playroom and looking out the window at the hospital cat, Tabby. At Sacred Heart I was never bored.  There was always something occupying me.

Some of my doctors were Dr. Rex Northup, Dr. Jimmie Jones, and Dr. Mercedes Picardi.  The only nurse I remember was Ms. Donna Ashby.  She has since relocated to another facility; however, I kept in touch with her for many years.  I even went to stay with her a few times when I was visiting my grandmother in Pensacola.

Since my stay at Sacred Heart I have  had more procedures, such as a repair of a tethered cord, an appendocostomy, and a removal of one uterus, and I just recently in the last week had a laproscopic procedure where they found endometriosis wrapped around my right pelvic kidney and right ovary.  The removal of the ovary will take place in a couple months. Along with these procedures, I have had many esophageal repairs to stretch my trachea. My last one was preformed in 1996.

Even though I have had many procedures and have struggled with daily living skills, I’m not giving up.  I was created this way by God and there is not another person exactly like me.  That makes me special.  Maybe one day me being the way that I am will touch someone else if it hasn’t already.
 
During my school days, I knew I always wanted to pursue a  career in the medical field.  I started out wanting to become a doctor.  Then I chose to become a nurse.  I have wanted to be a nurse for many years.  I want to work with neonatal critical care patients and their families.  By working with these patients and sharing my story, I feel that I could give that family hope for another day with their child.
 
I no longer live in Pensacola.  I moved to Newton, MS with my mother, two brothers, and sister, who are all younger than I, when I was almost five.  Today I am pretty much normal, other than a  few daily treatments I  give myself each day.  I am currently a nursing major and hope to be in nursing school in August.  I also work part-time at a mental facility as a clerk in human resources, while going to school.   I hope to one day move back to Pensacola after I graduate  from nursing school and work at Sacred Heart.  Sacred Heart is my home  and that is where I feel lead to serve.