After my surgery, I was transferred to 6S. It was there where I saw Nurse Thornton-Walton and I just KNEW we had met previously. As it turns out she DID care for me following my resection surgery. It was during my stay there that she found out that she was pregnant with her first child! When I saw her right after my gall bladder removal surgery, she told me that it was her first day back after delivery of her child. What a very special and significant treat it was for me, knowing she would be once again caring for me!

When I had my resection surgery, I resisted and resisted when they (everyone, doctors, nurses, therapists etc.) told me to get out of bed and walk around. Nurse Thornton-Walton and ONLY Nurse Thornton-Walton was able to get me up out of the bed, sit up and start walking. Truly, she had my best interest at heart, and knowing how very important it was to start and keep moving after surgery just as soon as possible, and I am eternally grateful to her for, with a firm, yet compassionate hand, actually succeeding in getting me out of the bed!

In the middle of this horrific pandemic, even when Nurse Thornton-Walton was assigned four or five patients, she made me feel like I was her ONLY patient. Nurse Thornton-Walton in my opinion, has a natural ability as well as a passion for patient care, and I'm quite sure she is one whose nursing came to be from her having had a calling to do what is seemingly an impossible and overwhelming job, again with COVID making things much more difficult to maintain the already very well defined and rigid standards of health care. I just don't know how she did it, but I am glad to have had her assigned to me.

While at University Hospital and on my last day there, I became extremely upset and agitated that my wound (incision area which was, after the gall bladder was removed, stapled with 18 staples) continued to ooze and drain fluids, of which was covered with lots of gauze and other dressing. I felt that I was not getting answers to my question as to why the drainage was still so active after 13 days post opt. The surgeon told me that the drainage should stop in just a couple of days, which turned out not to be the case; so, I was extremely stressed. Nurse Thornton-Walton stepped right into crazy town with me, and was successful in helping me work through the anxiety and bring me back to my center. I'm quite sure I sprayed forth some profanities that have yet to be accepted into Webster’s dictionary, but nonetheless, that's where I was. Had Nurse Thornton-Walton not been there to ease the fears of a younger side senior citizen, I'm not sure just how things might have turned out.

Nurse Thornton-Walton is a beacon of light and hope that shines throughout her unit as a reminder to all, patients and colleagues alike, that patient care resulting in a patient’s happiness and wellness should be the ultimate goal from which all providers can follow her lead. This young lady is truly a gem, and I hope that the University Hospital leadership will recognize her as the kind of nurse whose behavior and abilities are a model from which nurses, both new and seasoned, can draw, which will most certainly prove that there's always a better, more efficient way of doing things.