Elaine Delange is a great woman and a phenomenal nurse.  I recently worked with her on the OB unit.  We call our work home and I was able to watch her take so much time and compassion with an incredibly pitiable woman in a most hopeless, heartbreaking situation.  While I have been blessed to not have felt victimized or taken advantage of in my life, this woman had been.  She had made plenty of her own poor choices, to be honest, and many of those led her to our triage that night. Many of the hospital staff, while courteous and kind to the patient, shook their heads behind her back, dismissed her as a drug case, and many said, ‘how could she do this to her baby?’

While everyone had broken hearts for her helpless fetus, few felt compassionate toward the woman who was the broken vessel for the baby.  This is why Elaine’s actions were so profound.  She was infinitely patient and kind, but honest and straightforward.  When the patient told her lies about her drug use and past, Elaine helped her see that the truth was the only way to help her and her baby.  The woman was a sobbing, pathetic mess who seemed to have hit rock bottom.  Elaine hugged her and listened to her. She not only encouraged her but gave her resources to seek help for herself and her other children. She knows it was unlikely that this patient would change or take her advice, but this didn’t stop her from treating this woman as if she were one of her own children.  When the patient was able to gather herself enough to want to eat, she gave her healthy food from her own lunch because let’s face it: hospital food at 0200? Not great.  When Elaine gave her the food, the patient again burst into tears because she said she couldn’t believe that a stranger would show her more love than she had ever received from anyone in her own life.  As Elaine shared this story with me, she had tears in her own eyes.

This story was especially meaningful in my mind because this happened at the same time that women across the world marched in protest for women’s rights.  Elaine showed her support for victimized women by putting on her scrubs and badge.  All it took in this case was a kind voice and touch, prayer and a banana from her lunch.  It was a shining example of absolute selflessness and compassion.