Abby DiGaetano
February 2018
Abigail
DiGaetano
,
MSN, CRNA
Anesthesia Department
Capital Health Regional Medical Center
Trenton
,
NJ
United States

 

 

 

I remember being taken to a conference room with a friend and a nurse walked in by the name of Abby. I remembered her kindness and how she said she wished she could take away my pain. I remember her eyes. She was so kind and I truly, as in shock as I was, felt her compassion. Her eyes spoke volumes to me. Abby brought a much needed human connection to this tragedy. Her presence in my life was meant to be. I believe that my husband guided Abby to me. Abby said she felt a very strong tug to come to me and tell me how special B was and how he had affected her and what she thought of our relationship. She could have ignored those feelings donning the cloth of professionalism to keep her distance, but she chose to connect, one human to another. She said things that were from her heart. And this did not take away from her professionalism. One of the most beautiful things was when she said she told B to think of something very beautiful when she was starting the procedure to insert his breathing tube, and she knew in her heart that he was thinking of me. She turned the mechanics of a brutal procedure into one where I felt comforted. It was the warmth she conveyed, her touch, her desire to not hold back in her works of reassurance. If I had to sum up her specialness, I would say that beyond her obvious competence, Abby followed her heart when she chose her words and how she reached out to me.