Glenda Fulton look at the pin her niece Morgan Thomas will receive during the Tyler Junior College Vocational Nursing pinning ceremony at Wise Auditorium on Wednesday Dec. 12, 2018. Fulton is a RN at UT Health East Texas. Fulton went through the TJC RN program in 1993, attending her own pinning ceremony at Wise Auditorium. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

Losing a child and undergoing her own stints as a patient under medical care did not deter Tyler Junior College student Morgan Thomas in her dream of becoming a nurse.

The 23-year-old Tyler resident persisted in her studies despite gaps in semesters and studying for classes in less than ideal locations — like while admitted into the hospital.

Thomas found the support and flexibility from classmates and teachers that she needed to make it to where she is today: one of 40 December graduates of the TJC’s Vocational Nursing program.

“She’s had a nonstop barrage of life-changing blows that would stop the average person,” her father, Roy Scott, said. “She was always told to not quit and to not give up.” 

Thomas’ first major hurdle in life came at age 12 when she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, an incurable disease that must be managed with insulin. As she entered her high school years, she experienced diabetic complications from being active in playing sports and other activities where her blood sugar could go too low or too high. She remembers a particular blood sugar incident that happened while she was playing the saxophone with the Edgewood High School marching band during halftime at a football game. This incident led her to think about a career in nursing.

“I had bottomed out in the middle of the halftime show. We had to keep going, but I couldn’t keep going,” she said.

Thomas walked to the sideline where she was then taken to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas where she was kept for two days to watch for the development of diabetic ketoacidosis, a serious complication of diabetes that occurs when the body produces high levels of blood acids called ketones.

While in the hospital, she developed a friendship with a nurse named Beverly Hargrove. In her follow-up appointments, Thomas asked her many questions about her job.

Thomas told Hargrove that she didn’t know what she wanted to do for a career, but that she always was interested in biology and anatomy. Hargrove suggested that she would be a good nurse.

“She made a big impact on me,” Thomas said.

In 2014, Thomas started classes at TJC. A year later, she joined the Licensed Vocational Nurse program, but a hospitalization caused her to miss two clinicals, so she had to drop out of the program.

Her mom, Paula Scott, gave her this advice: “If a door closes, find a window. Don’t stop on no.” 

In 2017, Thomas applied to TJC again. The day she found out she was accepted, she also found out she was pregnant.

“It was June 7, 2017, the day after my birthday,” she said. “What a birthday.” 

Thomas began her classes at the TJC North campus in Lindale where she formed close friendships with her classmates. They even threw her a baby shower, but unfortunately Thomas could not return for the spring semester.

Having Type 1 diabetes put Thomas’ pregnancy at high risk. Despite watching her diet and blood sugar levels, she put on a lot of weight. She was diagnosed with polyhydramnios, which is an excess amount of amniotic fluid in the amniotic sac.

At 35 weeks along, Thomas stopped feeling her baby move, so she went to the hospital. They detected a heartbeat, but no movement. Days later, the heartbeat was no longer detected, so Thomas was induced.

Baby Atlas Lee Banek was born on Jan 19, 2018. It was a stillbirth. Thomas was in labor for 16 hours, pushing for three hours, but he wasn’t coming out, so Thomas opted for a Caesarean delivery.

Atlas weighed 9 pounds, 2 ounces and measured 22 inches long. Thomas was 36 weeks when Atlas was born. She said Atlas had likely died three days earlier from a stroke due to a blood clot in the umbilical cord.

“They did a lot of testing on me and the placenta and found out I have protein S deficiency, which is a clotting disorder,” she said, adding that in April she found out she also has lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease where the body’s immune system attacks its own tissues and organs.

Thomas previously lost twins in 2016 at 14 weeks.

Dr. Harsh Adhyaru, an OB-GYN physician at UT Health East Texas Physicians Jacksonville, said having Type 1 diabetes increases the risk of everything in a pregnancy, including the risk of miscarriage or having a preterm baby. Unmanaged diabetes can cause a baby’s size to be too big or too small. It also can cause sudden fetal death and increased medical risks for the mother.

“It’s a very complicated pregnancy,” Adhyaru said, adding that the risks can be managed by working with specialists.

Thomas took the spring semester of school off to heal from her C-section. In May she returned to school, switching to the TJC main campus in Tyler.

“My firsthand medical experiences will help me understand what people are going through with their mental state,” she said. “I know when you hear a diagnosis that you’re not wanting how devastating it can be to someone who’s in school or has a career or is a mom or has a family. It can break you.” 

In the Vocational Nursing program Thomas learned clinical judgment, how to prioritize, time management, organization skills, how to calm a patient down, how to talk with patients’ families and how to be supportive. Of all the classes in her nursing program, though, she said her favorite was obstetrics, the branch of medicine focusing on childbirth and pregnancy.

“It wasn’t because of what I was going through, it was because it fascinates me how a little bitty bean can grow into a human,” Thomas said. “The anatomy of childbirth is really cool.” 

Thomas said her teachers were supportive and granted her some flexibility in rescheduling tests due to her medical leaves.

This fall semester Thomas completed a three-hour comprehensive predictor test while in the emergency room with an ulcer.

“The more my health declined, the more motivated I became,” she said. “If I quit now, I wouldn’t be one but two steps back from my goal.” 

Thomas’ ultimate goal is to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), but that will require more schooling. For now, she is applying to jobs and looking forward to a summer wedding that she and her fiancé have been planning since October.

During the traditional nursing pinning ceremony on Wednesday at TJC’s Wise Auditorium, Thomas was pinned by her aunt Glenda Fulton, a nurse at UT Health East Texas who graduated from TJC’s Registered Nurse program in 1993.

“The nursing pinning ceremony is a rite of passage for nurses, and has been a nursing tradition in the United States for more than 100 years,” said Michelle Nelson, department chair for vocational nursing. “The ceremony has its origin in the time of the Crusades, when monks were given the Maltese cross as a badge of honor for caring for the injured crusaders. Florence Nightingale continued this tradition by honoring her best nurses with a medal of excellence. (Today) we honor all of our nursing graduates with a pin that identifies them as graduates of TJC, and also serves as their welcome into the nursing profession.”

Thomas said knowing that her aunt went through the program while raising kids and dealing with her own life obstacles gave her motivation to complete her program.

“She has a big heart,” Fulton said of Thomas. “She understands the hardships people go through. She can be empathetic, and she can be smart and figure things out. She’ll make a great nurse.”