Ice Storm Leads Tulsa Nurses To Sleepover

By Rick Wells, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- The bad weather didn't stop babies from being born. Surgeries scheduled needed to be done in spite of the ice and bad roads.  To deal with the situation, some nurses at St. John Medical Center found a way to keep themselves safe and take care of their patients.

Three-day-old Trip was born a week or so early Monday afternoon as the weather turned bad. He was getting ready to go home on Thursday.  Robin Haley was at the hospital to take care of him because she and several other nurses had planned ahead.

"We had decided about five to just stay the night," said nurse Robin Haley.

She had packed an extra bag just in case.

"I knew we had the availability to stay here at the hospital.  Then it started getting bad and Sharon and I started thinking what if the night girls can't get in," said nurse Robin Haley.

Sharon is Sharon Pollok.  They work the newborn nursery during the day and the shift change is at 7. Down the hall, Program Manager Gaye Rotramel had the same idea.  She had packed a suitcase and brought in extra clothes

She and several others turned a nearby classroom into a makeshift dorm room.  She said there were four in there and a few more across the hall.

"All over the hospital there were people staying," said Gaye Rotramel.

She said there were surgeries scheduled, babies being born, and somebody had to take care of them.

"We gotta be there.  We gotta be ready," said St. John's Gaye Rotramel.

The nurses down in the nursery thought it might be fun.

"We had big plans.  We were gonna eat some popcorn and watch TV," said Sharon Pollok.

But, when their shift was over, most were too tired to pop corn or watch much TV.

And, Trip, he slept through most all of it.  Somebody will have to tell him about the big storm the day he was born.

Many of the nurses told The News On 6 their plan to sleep over was born during the ice storm of December 2007.  If it ever happened again, they said, they'd be ready.