My husband had a heart attack and emergency quintuple bypass surgery. Being in CVICU was all new for us, and frankly very frightening in spite of your reassuring nursing staff and doctors.

Katie’s bright smile, youthfulness, competence and compassion are praiseworthy attributes in every way. In the midst of the intensity of CVICU, they are even more remarkable. The first 24 hours, Katie was the nurse for a hard-of-hearing patient next door. When Katie spoke loudly to the other patient, my husband answered. He was ready for her voice when she was assigned to be his nurse a day or so later. We smile still as we remember Katie’s care.

The details of caring that set Katie apart would be hard to explain, except to say that in everything she did, she combined compassion and competence. She was encouraging in the ways she tried to awaken my husband and find out if he was thinking about able to cooperate with the procedures necessary. He responded very well with Katie, as we did. My husband’s sister, a retired cardiac nurse, was with my husband almost constantly, and also loved Katie’s kindness.

Katie’s ability and maturity to rise to the challenges of the CVISU Unit is remarkable and deserving of commendation. Thanks to the attentive care my husband received at Baptist, and by God’s healing grace, he is continuing to recover.