Danielle Olds, BSN, RN, CCRN

My dad was on life support for a little over a week due to a seizure he had. This seizure did a lot of damage to his brain, and unfortunately, we had to make the tough decision to remove his life support, and he passed away.

Through my dad’s stay at the hospital, his facial hair grew out on his neck, his hair became greasy, sticky residue left behind in his hair from his EG, he ran a fever, and he sweated a lot. I started not to recognize my dad; he looked nothing like himself.

I came to see him the day before we removed his life support, and he looked completely normal. Danielle washed his hair, removed the sticky stuff from his hair, shaved his neck and cheeks, brushed his teeth, brushed his hair, washed his sweaty/clammy hands, and cleaned his face/ beard of the drool and chest mucus. It brought me to tears immediately. My dad smelled good; he looked like himself.

I'd hung pictures of my dad on the wall with little Post-it notes that had details about what kind of person he was. On one of those, I noted that he loves rock and roll music. Danielle turned on classic rock on the music channel on the TV. She paid attention to my notes and pictures; she treated him like the person he was... not just her “patient."

I thanked her several times, but I don't think she'll ever understand how much it meant to me that she took such good care of my dad that day. My dad was my best friend, and to be able to see him as I knew him meant the absolute world to me.

She could have done the bare minimum, taken a break to eat a snack, but she did not. She went above and beyond, and I am very grateful for that.