Courtney K. McLean, MD

My name is Courtney McLean, and I’m neonatologist at Children’s.

My love for neonatology probably started as doing an extra 2 weeks in the NICU as a fourth-year medical student. I got to see some very interesting patients, along with extremely premature babies.

I think patients’ families would describe me as a support system for them while their kids are sick in the hospital.

Babies that are in the NICU, sometimes they’re born 4 months early, and that comes with a lot of problems because every part of them is premature. Their breathing is one of the biggest things we have to deal with.

Sometimes, once the babies are over their initial illness, the biggest thing they have to do to get home is learn how to eat, which sometimes takes a long time when they’ve been so sick and so premature.

One of the most rewarding things about my job is when I had a really sick patient and they get better. Seeing them get better is so rewarding, and seeing them go home after a long hospital stay is so rewarding.