Leigh Heffington
August 2020
Leigh
Heffington
,
RN
Free Standing Emergency Department
TriStar Summit Medical Center
Hermitage
,
TN
United States
I was working an overnight shift at the MJ Freestanding ER when disaster struck. The tornado touched down directly across the road from our small building. We dove straight into life-saving mode without thinking twice, in order to assist our community and help our patients.
Just moments after the tornado passed, I received a phone call from Leigh. She just wanted to check and make sure we were safe and see if we needed anything. I assured her we were okay at the time. Less than an hour later, our patient census had more than tripled, as ambulances were bringing 2-4 tornado victims at a time, as well as patients literally crawling through our front doors. It did not take long for us to feel overwhelmed.
I took an IO second break from disaster triage to send a text to Leigh that said, "If you can get here, please come. We need help." At 3 o'clock in the morning, Leigh got out of her warm bed, changed into her scrubs, and left the safety of her home and her family to come to work. She took detours and dodged debris and power lines in order to get to us. She greeted us with a smile, and the rest was a blur. We hardly saw each other at all over the next 4 hours as we were running from room to room, taking care of the tornado victims.
It was about 7 am when we finally crossed paths at the nurses' station. I looked down and realized that Leigh did not have any socks on. I joked and asked her if she forgets to put them on when she got out of bed. Her response was, "I gave them to the patient in that room." The patient was a truck driver who was asleep in the cab of his 18-wheeler on the side of the interstate when the tornado struck and flipped his entire truck over. He was able to escape without any major injuries, but all of his clothing was soaked and ruined. We had already given all of our hospital socks to other patients throughout the night and did not have any left. Leigh took her own socks off of her own feet and gave them to the patient. I have never witnessed a more selfless act in my career as a nurse.
The amount of compassion that Leigh had for her coworkers and all of our patients that night will forever lead as an example of the kind of nurse and human I strive to be.
Just moments after the tornado passed, I received a phone call from Leigh. She just wanted to check and make sure we were safe and see if we needed anything. I assured her we were okay at the time. Less than an hour later, our patient census had more than tripled, as ambulances were bringing 2-4 tornado victims at a time, as well as patients literally crawling through our front doors. It did not take long for us to feel overwhelmed.
I took an IO second break from disaster triage to send a text to Leigh that said, "If you can get here, please come. We need help." At 3 o'clock in the morning, Leigh got out of her warm bed, changed into her scrubs, and left the safety of her home and her family to come to work. She took detours and dodged debris and power lines in order to get to us. She greeted us with a smile, and the rest was a blur. We hardly saw each other at all over the next 4 hours as we were running from room to room, taking care of the tornado victims.
It was about 7 am when we finally crossed paths at the nurses' station. I looked down and realized that Leigh did not have any socks on. I joked and asked her if she forgets to put them on when she got out of bed. Her response was, "I gave them to the patient in that room." The patient was a truck driver who was asleep in the cab of his 18-wheeler on the side of the interstate when the tornado struck and flipped his entire truck over. He was able to escape without any major injuries, but all of his clothing was soaked and ruined. We had already given all of our hospital socks to other patients throughout the night and did not have any left. Leigh took her own socks off of her own feet and gave them to the patient. I have never witnessed a more selfless act in my career as a nurse.
The amount of compassion that Leigh had for her coworkers and all of our patients that night will forever lead as an example of the kind of nurse and human I strive to be.