As an RN on 12CFAC (formerly 8NT, 3NT, and 3SW) for the past 23 years, I have cared for my share of patients. We've had all different people, including patients who were under 18, long-term patients here for 6-9 months, patients who get readmitted over and over from complications of their surgery/cancer, as well as others who have varying degrees of complicated disease processes and emotional struggles. However, I have never seen our team come together as well as when we cared for our 17-year-old patient. This young man, who was off-service on our floor, had a terrible diagnosis with multiple complications, easy for no one, much less a minor in an adult hospital setting. Most days I work, I tend to sit in the rounding room across from his room. During the many months he was with us, if I was not his RN, I witnessed such caring and compassion from all the other staff that had the pleasure of working with him, especially keeping in mind he was just a teenager; an age group we normally don't have much experience with as a patient. I am including just a few short stories of the bond we all formed with him, but despite what I write, please know there were daily stories of how our staff went above and beyond for this young man and truly enjoyed our time with him.

Especially in the early days of his stay, it was a struggle to keep him motivated to keep going. On night shift many times, he would get lonely and have frequent panic attacks, so one of our nurses would chart in the room and hold his hand to keep him company. Also, to keep his spirits up, our team had a Post-it note on his door saying, "Ask me for a fun fact today." He had a wealth of knowledge about sloths and lemurs and even had a stuffed lemur named Lyle. I personally enjoyed talking with him about his plans for college and beyond. He was excited about a career in IT and asked about our IT staff at Froedtert, stating he may want to work in that department someday. Others had lengthy conversations regarding Disney World and his hopes and plans to go there as part of his Make-A-Wish trip. We also saved him the "dad jokes" from our unit's page-a-day calendar. He seemed to appreciate the bad humor.

His birthday was right in the middle of his stay. No one wants to be in the hospital for this long, but again, especially not a teenager. We got him decorations (streamers, balloons, and party hats) and a gift basket for his birthday. We gave him a little ball game and 2 Lego sets to build (one Harry Potter and one Darth Vader). Anyone who knows this patient knows his room was packed full of Star Wars and Harry Potter stuff, decorations, figurines, and Lego. He also got a squirt gun from the staff and was allowed to squirt it at our charge nurse that day. On Halloween, he dressed up like a Jedi while others joined in the fun. Other memories include him calling one of his nurses older than his grandma, but it was a good thing because he could trust her. Another RN said her favorite memory of taking care of him was playing Mario Kart so that he would stay in the chair longer. He of course kicked the nurse's butt, but it was so much fun. We got to know this patient well. In his rougher days, he could not get out of bed, and it was difficult to even turn him with the amount of pain he had. Every single person I saw in that room took great care to listen to him and his needs and move him as gently as possible. This included the PT/OT staff on our floor who always worked in pairs, and even if he didn't necessarily want to get out of bed when he eventually could, they got him up and moving. All of us would shout words of encouragement to him in the halls.

The last few weeks, he was able to wheel himself through the halls on his own in his wheelchair. I truly believe this patient felt like a son or brother to all of us. I remember when his principal came in the fall to speak with him and make sure he was still motivated enough to do schoolwork. After this, I observed many of us encouraging him to set aside time in the day, in between cares, to work on school so he could keep up with his classmates. Many worked with other staff so this would be possible, getting him up in the chair by a certain time in the morning for class, and kept on him as well to make sure he was getting some daily school work done when there were days he just didn't feel like doing it. In the end, at discharge, we made a shirt for him, and had all the staff sign it. It was bittersweet, seeing him leave, but also knowing how far he'd come to get home.