Cindy Tweedy knew at an early age that she wanted to be a nurse, but at the age of 16, her uncle who was a dentist convinced her to pursue becoming a dental hygienist instead.
Many years later, Cindy was 31 weeks pregnant with her first child and working full time as a dental hygienist when she experienced bad back pain. This led her and her husband to go to the hospital and she delivered their first son, Justin, at Virginia Baptist Hospital that night.
Justin spent 36 days in the Intensive Care Nursery (ICN) at Centra Virginia Baptist Hospital (VBH) and Cindy explained that they were impressed with the nurses and consistently had the thought, “this is an amazing place,” the entire time they were there.
Two and a half years later, Cindy was pregnant with their second child and experienced the same back pain she had while pregnant with Justin. This led her to visit the hospital immediately and avoid an early delivery. Fortunately, her second son, Adam, only had to spend one week in the ICN, but what didn’t change was the extremely positive experience that Cindy had on the unit.
After she returned to work as a dental hygienist, Cindy was talking to her stepdad about how she would still love to be a nurse and how attending the Lynchburg General Hospital School of Nursing would only take two years. During their conversation he encouraged her with the advice, “life’s too short to not do what you want to do.” Sadly, two weeks later, he passed away from a heart attack which only made his advice to Cindy more relevant.
In August 2012, Cindy began attending the Lynchburg General Hospital School of Nursing and was a part of the first group that transitioned to Centra College and its new building. When graduating, she knew she wanted to be a part of neonatal care at Virginia Baptist Hospital, so she sent an email to the manager of the unit who she had kept in touch with after each of her boys were born. Landing an interview led to a job, and the rest is history. She has worked on the unit since 2014!
Cindy’s son, Justin, became a firefighter with the Lynchburg Fire Department (LFD) in the summer of 2023 and when he graduated, Cindy told him that if he ever had to transport a newborn to make sure to bundle them up and keep them warm.
Fast forward to this year, Cindy was at work during the shift change when she received a text from Justin saying that he and the crew from LFD were transporting a newborn baby to the ICN that had been delivered at home. Soon, Justin and his team arrived with the baby, and after they had safely transitioned the baby into care on the unit, Cindy brought Justin over to another nurse who works on the ICN.
Lezley Scott had been the primary nurse to care for Justin when he was in the ICN, so it was a full circle moment for Cindy and Lezley to experience as Justin helped bring another baby to the unit. Amazingly, it was also the week of his 21st birthday, so the week had marked 21 years since Lezley had cared for him and now, he was helping to ensure that another preemie could receive the care they needed from the ICN Team.
Cindy went on to say, “Justin reassured me that he had remembered my advice. When they transported the baby, the crew made sure to crank up the heat in their truck.”