To give a brief background, my mother-in-law was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma four years ago and has battled it ever since. She has been cared for by an excellent team at MD Anderson, who coordinates care with a local team here at KU. She is a true fighter, has had numerous abdominal surgeries and resections as a result, and now finds herself hospitalized with a large enterococcus fistula.

She was directly admitted because of this, and was initially being managed by medical oncology, infectious disease, and the hospitalist team. Upon visualizing the size of the fistula one morning, Infectious Disease consulted surgery. Initial conversations with surgery involved having a pouch placed by the wound care nurse.

This nurse was the bright light of the upcoming days, in terms of hospital staff interaction with my mother-in-law. When she placed an initial pouch on my mother-in-law's lower abdomen, she spent considerable time with us, listening to us, hearing my mother-in-law's story and history, and of course, took considerable care to ensure that she reduced the amount of pain that she was in. This nurse made a confusing day for us, (as we interacted with four different services and attempted to also update her primary care team at MD Anderson-an additional surgical and oncological team) relatable, comfortable, and manageable. She assuaged fears, (to the best of her ability-this is scary and bad) and by listening to my mother-in-law, reassured her that people care for her and about her. By engaging in everyday conversation and small talk, she restored my mother-in-law’s humanity…she was not just a patient, she was a person.

We were both fortunate and unfortunate enough to have this nurse help us again the following day. Overnight, my mother-in-law's abdominal pouch failed, and started profusely bleeding from her wound site. Surgery ordered another pouch placed, and my mother-in-law was very hesitant to even see the Wound Care team again, given her current level of pain and frustration. When this nurse came into her room, she had already been updated by another nurse that we were hesitant to see her, and this nurse was careful, concerned, LISTENED, and responded. She didn’t take anything personally, answered all our questions about options, asked questions to determine what could have led up to the previous pouch failing, and she cared for my mother-in-law!

We attempted another pouch, which failed within 30 minutes of being placed. She called in additional team members for advice, and together, with my mother in law's collaboration, came up with a plan that everyone was in agreement with. This nurse knew that the surgical team would not be happy with the proposed solution, and she stayed with my mother-in-law and I to ensure that she could communicate with them, all of the attempts that were made, the discussions that were held, and ultimately everything that came to the decision that the Wound Care team had made.

This nurse spent over 1.5 hours with us that third day. I cannot imagine her current workload and cannot express the levels of appreciation I have for someone who went ABOVE AND BEYOND what we would expect, to ensure that her patient was taken care of. She listened to my mother-in-law and I watched their interactions. It was not hard to determine that was what my mother-in-law needed most. She needed to still feel like a person, not just the patient, and this nurse did that. I cannot say enough to communicate what she meant to my mother-in-law and our family, as we work through an extremely difficult holiday season-so much to celebrate, while saddened all the same. More than anything else, I want to ensure that anyone/everyone at TUKHS knows that this nurse humanized my mother-in-law, and that was probably the best thing that she could have done for her.