I received this letter from a patient’s wife that exemplifies the kind of compassionate care that Terri exhibits to her patients every shift she works. This is just one of many letters I have received where patients or family members have commented on how wonderful the care that Terri provided was.

This letter will serve as a special "Thank You" and a request for special recognition for one of Good Samaritan's CV H.A.R.T. nurses, Terri Rusnak. Our family first had the opportunity to meet Terri when my mother was a patient at Good Samaritan during several hospital stays over the past few years with congestive heart failure, testing, triple by-pass, and eventually an ICD pacemaker. Terri served as my mother's nurse many times in that unit and we had the pleasure of experiencing her quality care, compassion, and excellent nursing skills. My mother's last stay at Good Samaritan was July 2010 and thanks to all her wonderful heart doctors she has not been in congestive heart failure since that stay. Upon my mother's discharge, anyone dealing with Terri's care would know, that you just want to give her a big hug when you say good-bye because of her kind and caring demeanor; and in July 2010 we did just that.

Last week, September 15th, my 47 year old husband, David, was admitted to the CV H.A.R.T. unit for an atrial fibrillation ablation procedure. This procedure was an unexpected and very much unplanned procedure at this stage in his life. He started experiencing A-fib in July and the condition became very symptomatic, requiring an immediate ablation. Much to our surprise, while my husband was preparing for the procedure, Terri came in to his room and immediately recognized us and remembered my mother! She would be my husband's nurse over the next two days. We all chuckled about how none of us expected to see my husband as the patient given all the times we had spent in that unit with my mother. As a very concerned wife, Terri kept my worry in check with providing updates throughout the procedure. That is huge when the procedure is so long!

I want to recognize Terri for her professionalism, gentle care and concern for our entire family through every medical ordeal we have been faced with. Words cannot convey our gratitude for the exemplary care she provided in the past to my mother and now most recently to my husband. Terri's concern and compassion, combined with her indubitable knowledge as a nurse have made it impossible to walk away and move forward without expressing our thanks. Terri is truly a testimonial to the ideals of the nursing profession and we hope as a family she will be recognized accordingly.