Christina Strait

Registered Nurse Christina Strait provides care to patients in St. Luke's Regional Medical Center's Intensive Care Unit.She received lifesaving care as a newborn in St. Luke's busy Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery 25 years and more than 10,000 special-needs newborns ago.
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"The best part about being an intensive care nurse at St. Luke's is when you see people come back to the unit to tell you ‘thanks,' " says Christina.As part of St. Luke's ICU staff, Strait assists in caring for seriously ill patients, including persons who have had surgery at St. Luke's, who have cardiac or respiratory problems and a variety of other serious health ailments.

"When the patients we have treated here at St. Luke's Intensive Care Unit come back to tell us they're doing well, it really makes you feel good that you helped to save their life," the St. Luke's ICU nurse says.

Her mother, Carol Birmingham-Strait, recalls when Christina was on the receiving end of such lifesaving care at St. Luke's.
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But their joy soon turned to concern as physicians at the Storm Lake, Iowa, hospital informed them that Christina had serious health problems.
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At St. Luke's, Christina was diagnosed with Rh incompatibility, a life-threatening complication that, untreated, can result in jaundice, anemia, brain damage, heart failure and death.

"From the moment we got to St. Luke's to the day we left, all of the nurses and staff were absolutely wonderful," Carol says."We always give credit to St. Luke's for saving Christina's life.They were all so helpful - they talked to us and thoroughly explained things.It was a great experience."

Although Christina was too young to remember her experience, Carol believes it influenced her daughter's career choice.
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Christina graduated from St. Luke's College in 2000 with the highest grade-point average in her class, and worked as an emergency room technician at St. Luke's for a year before joining St. Luke's ICU team.

Christina was among the first Siouxland infants to benefit from lifesaving care at St. Luke's Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery, which opened the year she was born.

In recognition of its high-quality care for newborns and mothers, St. Luke's is designated as the only Level II Regional Neonatal Unit in western Iowa by the Iowa Department of Health.