My family and I would like to recognize Matthew James. First, we want to explain a little about my mother-in-law's situation. She has been fighting cancer for the majority of 2019. She had a feeding tube placed and had been robbed of a lot of the simple pleasures in life we all take for granted, such as sitting down and enjoying a meal with her family. She had a small glimmer of hope toward the end of 2019 that her situation would look up, but in 2020, unfortunately, her cancer came back with a vengeance. During her most recent visit to UPMC Hanover, her airway became compromised due to the mass, and she needed the placement of a trach. This was a huge blow to her quality of life. Matt went above and beyond for my mother-in-law, and any time she or our family needed anything he dropped what he was doing and came running (sometimes literally since she had several emergencies while in his care). Matt would sit down with the family in her room, and discuss any questions, never appearing to be in a rush.
My mother-in-law had a feisty personality, and her nurse, Matt, took to her immediately. Every time Matt walked into the room she lit up. As her family, we can completely understand why this would be. Matt didn't treat her like a patient that he just needed to "get through" to get home; he treated her like he would a family member. Matt gave her a hug goodbye every day. He even took it one step further and when she was transferred out of the ICU; he came to her newly assigned room to check on her and say goodbye. It is refreshing to see someone who is in the right profession and has not become jaded as a caretaker. To us, Matt exemplified all the qualities anyone would want in their nurse. UPMC Hanover is very lucky to have him, and my mother-in-law was too. She passed away this spring. We know that Matthew receiving recognition would be important to her, so we wanted to be sure to follow through with this nomination in her honor.