{"id":153506,"date":"2026-03-31T18:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T18:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/153506\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T18:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T18:41:09","slug":"pennsylvania-nurse-has-full-circle-moment-when-she-starts-work-at-the-same-nicu-where-she-was-cared-for-30-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/153506\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Nurse Has ‘Full-Circle Moment’ When She Starts Work at the Same NICU Where She Was Cared for 30 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n

Allyson Smyth now works at the same NICU where she was treated as a premature baby 30 years ago<\/p>\n

Smyth\u2019s co-worker Karen Lenker, who cared for her as a baby, recognized her after seeing a photo of her parents<\/p>\n

Smyth explains how gratifying it is to work side-by-side with the woman who cared for her<\/p>\n

When Allyson Smyth reported to work for her first day, the hospital was more than familiar to her.<\/p>\n

According to 6 ABC Action News<\/a>, the Pennsylvania-based nurse began working at Main Line Health’s Bryn Mawr Hospital nearly 30 years after she was treated there as a preemie herself. Karen Lenker, one of her co-workers, was also one of her caregivers.<\/p>\n

After she graduated from school, Smyth was mentored by Lenker in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The latter remembered Smyth from the NICU as soon as she saw a photo of her parents.<\/p>\n

Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/p>\n

\"Stock<\/p>\n

Stock photo of a nurse and baby.
Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cMy journey to be a NICU nurse started from when I was born in the NICU at Bryn Mawr, August 3, 1995,\u201d says Smyth in an interview. \u201cMy name is Ally Smyth. I was at the NICU for 116 days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smyth, whose twin brother William died just one day after they were born, says she thinks of him each day she’s at the hospital. She also recently became the beneficiary of an anonymous $1 million donation to the hospital to aid student debt relief.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlly was one of these preemies, so I really felt drawn to take care of her,\u201d says Lenker. \u201cI\u2019m Karen Lenker, I\u2019m a NICU R.N., B.S.N. I\u2019ve been here since 1981, and then I came to the NICU in 1982.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going back 30 years. She was a really tiny, little, fragile preemie. But she was a fighter! So I basically kind of latched on to her,\u201d explains Lenker. \u201cSo you really get to know the families, you almost become part of the family. We kind of lost touch in between, like when she was an infant into her adulthood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stock<\/p>\n

Stock photo of a nurse and baby.
Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

As for how she recognized Smyth, Lenker says she first noticed her name and then asked if she could see a picture of her parents.<\/p>\n

“And that\u2019s when it all came back. And I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh my gosh. I took care of you all the time, I was at your first birthday party,’ ” says Lenker. “She brought her parents into the unit right after she started working here, so it was neat seeing them again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so neat to see the sickest babies pull through and survive,\u201d continues Lenker. \u201cThat\u2019s why I love this job, and as I said, I\u2019m 66, soon to be 67, and I\u2019m still working full time. So it\u2019s going to be a hard job to leave. That\u2019s why I think Ally should follow in my footsteps and maybe work til 70 in the NICU. But I don\u2019t know if she\u2019ll take me up on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stock<\/p>\n

Stock photo of a nurse.
Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

For Smyth, working at the same NICU she was born at has been very “full-circle” for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHearing the stories of my NICU journey definitely shaped my mindset in choosing nursing,\u201d says Smyth. \u201cIt really felt like a full-circle moment to be able to work at Bryn Mawr Hospital in the unit that I owe my life to. It really saved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very lucky to work with her,” says Smyth of Lenker. “I really owe a lot of my knowledge and expertise to her. I\u2019ve been here for six years. Every day, I honestly can say I love my job. I really enjoy it. And if that love and that passion is still there, I\u2019ll continue doing it as long as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the original article on People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW Allyson Smyth now works at the same NICU where she was treated as a premature…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[69749,69750,69748,39479,28,30,29,68240],"class_list":["post-153506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-allyson-smyth","tag-bryn-mawr-hospital","tag-karen-lenker","tag-nicu","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-premature-baby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}