On a Saturday, in August, a patient who has been with us for 6 weeks as one of only two survivors in a house explosion, finally got to see the other survivor, his mother. For weeks, we have cared for him while only siblings were able to come for support. His mother had been in the hospital with her own burns and then there was thesocial end of things putting a hold on their reunion. The team had heard our patient's story. We knew that most of the details of the patient's story and how he came to be involved in this life-altering injury were not pleasant and certainly were not easy to support as his new caregivers.
It has been easy for individuals involved in the patient's care to speculate and become protective of him, even against his own mother because of what we know happened. We knew that social work and the courts were working diligently to reunite the patient with his mother and I think it would be fair to say that those of us working with him were a bit hesitant about meeting her and about how the meeting would go. Especially since the patient had gone so long without seeing her.
Finally, she arrived. I was sitting at the nurse's station by myself and Kelly was sitting across from the nurse's station right next to the patient's room when the moment came and the patient's mother walked onto the unit. My first impression was that she was not at all what I had imagined. My eyes were quickly drawn to her own healed graft sites on her arm from her injuries. The first thing Kelly did was get up and come to her and introduce herself as the patient's nurse. But what happened next and how she did it, changed my heart and challenged my human nature of preconceiving people and situations.
Kelly walked right up to the patient's mother, arms wide open and hugged her. It was the first thing she did. And the mother immediately started to cry. And Kelly proceeded to say, "I'm so sorry that this happened to your family." And typing that just now, seeing it in black and white completely fails to convey the sincerity and genuine warmth and unconditional love that was shared in such a simple act and sentence.
I was moved, but so was the mother. I can't remember now what her exact words were as she cried but it was something to the effect of explaining that she was somewhat of a social pariah at home because of what happened. I was taken out of my role as pediatric burn nurse and reminded of my role as a member of the community. I saw her as a mother and as a member of a small town where she grocery shops under what I'm sure now are quite prying eyes. Daily activities that I'm sure have been unbearable weights after she lost family members and had so far been unable to see her son, all while healing from her own physical reminders of a horrible day. All of these things because Kelly was just being Kelly and loving this mother and victim as she should be. I didn't say anything to her, this will be the first she hears of it but I was so proud that she was that mother's first experience here. Her first memory of Riley will be Kelly's warm smile and hug and pure unjudged love and sincere condolences for the unimaginable event she had been through.
We are a network of incredible men and women serving as nurses for this organization. But I wanted someone else to know how extraordinary a single sentence, a single gesture could be. Maybe the mom was not as impressed as I was, maybe she was, but even if she wasn't, Kelly was an incredible role model to someone she didn't even know was watching or taking note. They say that character and integrity is who you are when no one is looking and as far as Kelly was concerned it was only she and that patient's mom standing in the hall. And she was exemplary anyway! This is just one example of her character and integrity.