story and photo by James Coburn, Staff Writer
asey Price understands the struggle parents can endure when trying to have children. She and her husband tried in-vitro fertilization after having two adoption losses.
“We had trouble having our kids,” said Kasey Price, a registered nurse on the intermediate care team at INTEGRIS Health Edmond Hospital. “After we did I just really felt in my heart that God grew my heart for those who can’t have children, and that He was calling me to be a surrogate,” Price said. “I found an agency and got matched with a couple and, just recently, I had my surrogate journey. I’m postpartum now. I got matched with a couple in Texas and it’s a very wonderful thing.”
The baby’s planning and delivery was everything she had hoped for. Price carried a baby girl and handed her over to her parents at birth, she said. The baby’s parents and their newborn are doing well at home.
“It’s a very rewarding thing. I think it’s something you have to be called to do because it is difficult to go through a pregnancy and come home without a child. But that was the plan from the beginning. I knew from the start that this child is never mine. I’m just helping to bring her to her parents.”
Sharing her experience with others is wonderful, Price said. Now she speaks to others who are considering surrogacy as a means to help them plan their families.
Price has discovered that many people lack a basic understanding of being a surrogate. The embryo was never Price’s embryo. The embryo was conceived by the two parents and Price’s surrogacy made the birth possible by sustaining the pregnancy.
“It was a wonderful experience in our labor and delivery unit,” she said.
Price and her husband have two girls and a boy of their own, ages 7, 6, and almost 4. And her nursing career is tailored so that she’s able to put her children to bed. Family is huge for her and her extended family is close to home.
“We love being outside and playing sports. I love doing puzzles,” Price said.
She is grateful for a career that allows her to help other people reach their potential and fulfill their own dreams of family life.
In 2008 Price earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree at the University of Central Oklahoma. She has been with INTEGRIS for three years, following nine years of serving in a similar capacity at another Oklahoma City hospital. Price had wanted to work closer to her Edmond home in a smaller hospital setting.
“Coming here is a little more low key, not quite as stressful. The people here have been amazing. They all love what they do and the leadership has been amazing,” she said.
She cares for step-down patients between ICU and med/surg as well as patients dealing with sickness such as COVID, heart failure, atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular response, hypertension, pneumonia, among other things . Price usually has three to five patients while working at the bedside.
“We are very open to family members at the bedside being part of the care,” Price said.
Her patients often show improvement, however close attentive observation is necessary to monitor changes in patients who become less stable. Education is key in helping patients and their family members to understand medications and disease processes. Health care tips help patients from having relapses requiring further hospitalization.
“For me it’s being there at that time when the patients may be at their worst,” Price said of what enriches her about being a nurse.
She recalls the height of the COVID pandemic when safety issues prevented family members from being at the bedside. It was a hard time, and yet rewarding for her to experience how grateful patients and families were about the comfort she and other nurses provided.
“Many of our patients couldn’t get out of bed respiratory-wise,” she said. “It was a big change for them not being able to function as normal. It was very scary for them.”
She recalled being with a patient during COVID, talking with him and making him feel like the person instead of a bed number/
“He just stuck out in my mind as being a true reason why I do my job,” she said.
Price lets patients know that the health care team is doing everything they can to help them recover and go home as quickly as possible.
“We understand it’s a hard time. Losing that sense of control is often hard on people. To be understanding of that is a big part of our job,” she continued. “To give patients as much control in the decision making as possible really helps with their time here.”
Being a nurse has helped Price to branch out in life, she said. Price described herself as not being the most talkative person in the world, but the conversations she has with patients has brought her to expand upon that.
“That’s an important part of what we do with the patients. Even if it’s just for two days and they go home, it’s an important two days to establish a relationship through communication,” she said. “It makes them feel more like a person and not just a bed number or a diagnosis.”
For more information about INTEGRIS Health Edmond Hospital or to join the team visit https://integrishealth.org/locations/hospital/edmond-hospital.
