I was admitted to LGH. That afternoon I was rushed to surgery and placed on life support. I was on ECMO for approximately 22 + days. When I woke up, almost a month later, I was still in ICU and on so many machines. Mel was one of the nurses whom I could remember. She lit up the room when she walked in. She always had a smile and made me laugh. She tried her hardest to read my lips when I was unable to talk. We had some good laughs. Her uplifting spirit got me through the Holidays. It was hard being stuck in the ICU during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's.
After getting moved from ICU to the 8th floor I got depressed. I missed my care team from the ICU! I missed their smiles and caring hearts. After I made it up to the 8th floor I asked to go down and visit the ICU staff and definitely Mel. On my discharge, I got to go down and visit. Mel just happened to be working. When she came out, the biggest smile came across her face and she embraced me with a huge hug! I almost was in tears, that's how happy I was to see her. After my discharge, I stopped to visit a friend dying of cancer-stage 4. Then we stopped down to ICU again to visit and again I was greeted with a smile from Mel. Today, I am going back in to drop off gifts I've made for the ICU team and cards saying thank you for saving my life.
Note: This is Melissa's 2nd DAISY Award!