I live in Wolfforth, Texas, and flew to Corpus Christi, Texas, to be with my family because my older brother had fallen at a skilled nursing facility and hit his head. He suffered severe head trauma that quickly turned into brain bleeding and was placed on a ventilator. When I arrived at the hospital, there was a sweet young nurse checking on my brother. Shortly after, she comes back with a pot of coffee, some water bottles, and snacks for my family. She checked on my brother again and also checked on my 95-year-old mother, who was in the room, sitting in her wheelchair. We are a family of eight brothers and three sisters and within the last thirteen years, we have lost five brothers. I can honestly say that this was the first time that any nurse has shown so much genuine care, compassion, and generosity for our family.

Within a day, we were told that our brother needed brain surgery, but there was no possibility of his surviving the surgery. We needed to make a decision as a family whether to take a chance on the brain surgery or remove him from the ventilator and let him die in peace. Again, nurse Lauren steps up and explains to the family the options that we were given. She gives us time to absorb what we have been told, and again brings in a fresh pot of coffee, asks if everyone is doing okay, and brings a pillow for our mother to sit comfortably in her wheelchair. We made the decision to remove the ventilator. We let Lauren know what we decided, and she will take care of all the arrangements. Lauren and the respiratory therapist come in and remove the ventilator tubes from my brother. They cleaned my brother’s face, and then Lauren and the respiratory therapist walked out of the room. Lauren turned around and walked back into the room to check on my family with tear-filled eyes and so much sincere compassion.

My brother lived four more days without the ventilator before passing away, struggling for every breath he took. Nurse Lauren was always so kind and helpful. She even came to the hospital and walked into the room on her day off to check on my brother and my family. So, in my opinion, Nurse Lauren Perez is an angel with big ole wings in a nurse’s uniform. She is a great nurse with so much care and compassion. I cannot say enough good things about her. She definitely goes above and beyond her duties as a nurse.