“I knew that she worked here and I didn’t want to tell her right away until I knew for sure the contract was going to get through, then I got the position here and we had our first shift together a few days after I started in that position,” Tuttle said. “It was a nice reunion.”
This was all a surprise to Tuttle, who said she was “super excited” to learn she would be working with Donnelly.
The two nurses met when Tuttle was 4 years old at Dayton Children’s Hospital and Donnelly was a registered nurse in the recovery room. Donnelly said she took care of Tuttle after a surgery, bonding with her family. Tuttle’s mom started requesting Donnelly take care of her daughter after each surgery.
“She had multiple surgeries and anytime she came in, I would walk her back to the operating room and I would sing to her as they were putting her to sleep,” Tuttle said.
The song was “You are my Sunshine,” something Tuttle’s mom used to sing to her.
Tuttle now sings that same song to her 10-month-old daughter, who she called a “miracle.”
Tuttle went into remission in 2006 after radiation and chemotherapy treatments were successful, and her family reconnected with Donnelly on Facebook several years later. Donnelly visited Tuttle in the hospital at around age 14, when she underwent a spinal fusion surgery.
“I didn’t work there at the time, but her mom reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, it would be great if you could [visit],” and I just kind of showed up,” Donnelly said.
This was the first time Donnelly had seen Tuttle in person for several years, and the two had a “tearful” reunion, she said.
Tuttle said she fell in love with obstetrics while she was in nursing school at Clark State College, where Donnelly got her RN certification. Tuttle, now an RN, said she initially wanted to go into pediatric oncology but felt she couldn’t handle it with her own past.
“Here we are now and I love it; helping bring life into the world,” Tuttle said. “I feel like I can connect better now that I have a daughter of my own. I always wanted to connect with people because people were saying how hard it was, but nobody understood what I was going through. ... Maybe it’s not the way I thought I would be doing it with nursing, but now I can do it in obstetrics.”
The nurses now have a unique relationship and find comfort in each other at work. Tuttle knows deeply the kind of care Donnelly provides when she vouches for her, and Donnelly gets to see Tuttle grown up, the same age as her own oldest child.
“We both know where our hearts are,” Donnelly said. “She knows me and I know her, as far as the kindness.”
Donnelly said nursing is a great field where nurses can “really touch people’s lives” if they allow themselves to.
Tuttle said Donnelly made such a big impact to her life, and “I wanted to be that” for others, too.
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