Nurse Jess Hamm Adopts Abused Twins Delilah and Caroline

Originally published 2018-05-07.

A Nurse's Decision to Care for a Baby and Her Twin

In March 2017, a paediatric intensive care nurse in Jacksonville, Florida, cared for a 14-month-old girl who had been brought in with severe injuries from abuse. Within months, that nurse, Jess Hamm, had become the child's foster mother, and by the end of the year she had adopted both the little girl, Delilah, and her twin sister, Caroline, who had also been mistreated. The twins went from hospital beds to a home of their own, and their recovery became one of the most shared adoption stories of 2018.

Below is what happened, how a nurse moves from caregiver to parent through the foster care system, and what the girls' story says about children who have survived early trauma.

A patient in the paediatric ICU

Delilah was admitted to Wolfson Children's Hospital in Jacksonville on 16 March 2017. According to the hospital's own account, she had a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain, a broken thigh bone, fractures in both wrists and bruises on her face, and she was badly malnourished. Doctors classed her injuries as non-accidental trauma, the medical term for harm deliberately caused by someone else. She needed emergency surgery to relieve pressure on her brain. At more than a year old, she was too weak to sit up or hold a bottle.

Hamm, a critical care nurse in the paediatric ICU, was working that shift. She later told reporters that the girl seemed almost lifeless, yet still gripped her finger, and that she knew almost at once that she wanted to take her home. Hamm had spent years trying to have a baby, including several rounds of fertility treatment, without success.

From nurse to foster parent

Wanting to help a patient and being allowed to parent her are very different things, and Hamm went through the formal process. She first asked the unit's social worker how to proceed. He pointed her to Family Support Services of Northeast Florida, the agency that manages foster care and adoption in the area on behalf of the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF). After a home study and background checks, she was approved as a foster parent.

It was during that paperwork that Hamm learned Delilah was a twin. Her fraternal sister, Caroline, had been taken to the same hospital's emergency room hours after Delilah's admission. Caroline had no obvious injuries, but X-rays revealed fractures that were already healing, a sign of earlier abuse. Hamm agreed to take both girls before she had even met Caroline. Keeping siblings together is a priority in child welfare whenever it is safe, because the bond between brothers and sisters is often the one stable relationship a removed child still has.

The adoption

Delilah spent about a month in hospital. During that time her birth mother had a final supervised visit, with Hamm present, and signed away her parental rights the same afternoon. Hamm has said she felt sadness for the woman rather than hatred.

After the required waiting period, the adoption was finalised on Halloween 2017 in the chambers of Duval County Judge David Gooding. True to the date, the twins came dressed as peanut butter and jelly, and their new mother dressed as the bread. The girls were about 22 months old.

Hamm put it simply in an interview with the hospital: she believes she was meant to work there, and meant to meet her daughters.

Two very different little girls

When local television station Fox 30 Action News Jax and then Fox News reported on the family in early 2018, the twins were around two years old and thriving. Hamm described them as completely changed from the children she first met in hospital, crediting regular meals, routine and steady love. Their days were filled with singing and exploring.

Their personalities had also begun to show. Caroline was described as sociable, keen to help and fiercely protective of her sister. Delilah loved charming everyone she met, handed out kisses freely and could keep herself busy for long stretches with things she enjoyed.

Recovery was not instant or complete. Delilah needed a brain MRI roughly every two months to monitor her injury, and both girls were receiving physical, occupational and speech therapy. Friends, colleagues and strangers helped by donating toys, clothes and furniture, and the hospital's emergency department team made a large donation of its own.

Why early care matters so much

Stories like this can sound like fairy tales, but the progress the twins made reflects something child development experts see repeatedly. Babies and toddlers who have been neglected or hurt often fall behind in growth, movement and speech. When they move into a safe, predictable home with responsive adults, many make substantial gains, especially when therapy starts early. Serious injuries such as Delilah's brain bleed can still have lasting effects, which is why ongoing medical follow-up is part of the picture.

It is also worth separating the stages of the story. Meeting a child in hospital, becoming a licensed foster parent and finalising an adoption are distinct steps, each with its own checks and legal decisions. Hamm's case moved unusually fast because the birth mother relinquished her rights; many foster placements take much longer and some children return to their birth families once it is safe.

If this story makes you think about fostering

Hamm has said she hopes her family encourages others to consider fostering or adoption. If you are curious, a few practical starting points:

Contact your local child welfare agency. In the US this is usually a state department or the community agency it contracts with; elsewhere, your local authority can explain the process.
Expect training and a home study. Background checks, home visits and parenting classes are standard and exist to protect children.
Consider sibling groups and older children. They are often the hardest to place.
Support counts too. Respite care, mentoring, donations and volunteering with foster families all help, even if you cannot foster full-time.

The video below, shared on YouTube, tells the family's story with footage of the twins.