For nine months, Hailey Okula’s Instagram followers watched her balance the demands of her job with the happiness of preparing for her and her husband’s first child. Now, that same community is coming together to support her husband and their newborn son in the aftermath of her death.
Okula, an ER nurse known on Instagram as Nurse Hailey, died from childbirth complications shortly after welcoming her son, Crew, according to a Tuesday 1 update shared by her husband, Matthew Okula.
Matthew Okula’s post featured a video collage of their relationship and pregnancy journey, which included video of his wife in labor.
“It is with the heaviest of heart that I share the devastating news of the unexpected passing of my beautiful wife, Hailey Marie Okula,” the post reads. “Words cannot convey the depth of the loss I feel. Hailey was more than I could have ever dreamed of in a wife and partner. She was gorgeous, smart, hardworking, passionate, trustworthy, and, above all else, unbelievably loyal. For nearly 13 years, she stood by my side in the hardest of times, loving me endlessly, even when I felt undeserving of that love. She was my everything.”
In 2019, Hailey Okula founded RN New Grads to support newly graduated nurses, providing information about finding work and launching into a nursing career. Her RN New Grads Instagram account shared vulnerable content as she opened up about her pregnancy journey and the challenges she and her husband faced with infertility and IVF. She grew the Instagram community to over 400K followers.
“Being able to say that we are pregnant is indescribable,” she wrote in a September 2024 pregnancy announcement. “From my infertility problems, to my husband’s infertility problems, to us having to create a special probe because we both carry the same genetic disease, lotsssss of meds and lots of money, the journey has been hard, but so worth it.”
In the post announcing her death, Matthew Okula reflected on Hailey’s strength throughout their journey to parenthood.
“Words can’t describe how badly we wanted to be parents,” he wrote. After years of infertility struggles and a long, challenging IVF process, we were overjoyed to be expecting Crew. Hailey faced every hurdle with so much courage and love — even though her body went through so much, she never wavered. I will never forget the moment I broke down, apologizing for the toll the process would take on her. She held my face, looked into my eyes, and said, ‘We are a team, and we’ll get through this together.’ That was Hailey. A fighter. A teammate. A woman who would do anything for the people she loved.”
The Los Angeles Fire Department, where Matthew Okula works as an engineer, posted about Hailey Okula’s death, saying it “grieves the loss of Mrs. Okula.” It also pointed followers to the “Housewives of LAFD” Instagram account, which is hosting a fundraiser for the widower and new baby.
Many of Hailey Okula’s followers responded to the news of her passing with messages of heartfelt support and anecdotes of how she had touched their lives.
“She was my nurse during one of my toughest hospitalizations,” one user wrote. “I’ll never forget her kindness and quick help.”
“I am truly shocked and heartbroken for your entire family. There are no words,” one commenter wrote. “Hailey as such a light in this nursing community. She and I messaged back and forth throughout our pregnancies, and I am devastated to hear this news.”
“I can’t believe this! She was soooo excited about becoming a new mom,” another commented. “She even replied to my comment, saying thank you when I told her she was the best content producer for her ER skits…I WILL MISS HER!!!”
