I recently experienced one of the most stressful and frightening times of my life. My blood pressure shot up to 197/107 and I could barely catch my breath. I drove myself to your emergency room where I was immediately attended to by your staff. After numerous attempts with nitroglycerin and a chest x-ray, later it was discovered that I had a right collapsed lung. A surgeon was immediately brought in and with the assistance of two nurses, performed "surgery" right there in the emergency room to put in a chest tube where my lung immediately returned to normal. I was then admitted to your third floor for an expected four to five day period. Your ER staff handled themselves with the highest form of professionalism and I owe them my life for their quick thinking and action that kept my situation from going from bad to worse. I believe God used your excellent staff as his tools to save my life on Tuesday and for that, I am eternally grateful to CHS for your great staff and facility. As thankful and impressed as I am with your ER staff, my inspiration for writing this letter came from another employee of yours, Nurse Jennifer Blair.
As you might imagine, anyone going through what I did would naturally be scared to death even after the surgery and being admitted. In my life, I have had ten knee and two back surgeries, so needless to say, I have had my experiences with many nurses through my life. I have many family members who are nurses (including my mother), so I have the highest regard for the profession and the hard and thankless job that it can be. In the morning at shift change was when I met my angel of mercy, Jennifer Blair. She not only went out of her way to see my every need but she did it with such sincerity and love. She performed her job flawlessly and with the greatest professionalism, I had ever seen in a nurse. Her smile brought me peace, her caring voice brought me calm and her words gave this old guy assurance that I was going to make it. If you could clone this young lady, you would be leaps and bounds ahead of your competition. I am not easily impressed nor do I spend my time writing letters on others' behalf, but Jennifer's actions have compelled me to do so. A nurse can be a "good" nurse by performing her medical duties satisfactorily but when a nurse uses her god given gifts to bring hope and peace and love to the sick and dying, well, you have something very special. That my friend is what you have in Jennifer Blair. My wife and I treasure her and we pray that you do as well.