Childhood Cancer Survivor Returns To The Same Hospital As A Nurse 20 Years Later

October 1, 2017

As a child, Montana Brown beat cancer — twice.

Along the way, she dreamed of growing up to become a pediatric nurse. This week, Montana started working as a nurse at the same hospital that saved her life.

Credit: Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

When Montana was just two years old, she was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of cancer of the connective tissue. She underwent chemotherapy at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta's Cancer Center.

By the time Montana reached high school, she had been active in competitive gymnastics and competitive cheerleading for years. Then the family got shocking news at the end of her freshman year: The 15-year-old had cancer again. She underwent chemotherapy at CHOA again.

Montana said it was those encounters with nurses as a toddler and then years later as a teenager that pushed her to decide nursing was her calling.

"The nurses here, as great as they were when I was 2 -- from what my mom says -- they were extremely loving and caring and compassionate. And, just the love they showed me and my family in our time of need just really helped me," she told WSB-TV Atlanta.

"I really wanted to be that person where when I said, 'Hey, I totally understand. This is where I was. This is where I am now.' That me and my patients would form a bond. I'm not walking through the doors as a patient anymore. I am walking through as a staff member."