My husband was in TLC North for 24 days. He is now home, and we are very grateful to the TLC staff who gave him such excellent care and saved his life. He asked me to try to express his feelings about the nursing staff and here is my attempt. He thinks this might come in handy for your use in some way or for the nursing staff:

The eye
Imprisoned in a sterile white cocoon of bandages and tubes
Three weeks now, in Intensive Care
Clinging to life through a gurgling breathing tube
Time blurs from days into nights, into days, without change
No windows

Beyond me, an active world continues on all sides
Many people revolving around me in purposeful movement
But never my own
Inside me it is absolutely still. Solitary.
Fearful. Painful. Alone.

Except for the eye
The eye comes regularly and faithfully
Hovering above me, peering into my eyes
Seeking me out, searching, searching....
Riveting. The eye will not let me go
Until a connection is made—my soul to that soul
The contact ignites a spark, something still alive within me
The eye says, "Do not be afraid. Look. I see you in there."

Throughout the endless hours
I wait for that eye to come again
Sometimes it is gone for periods of time, and I long for it
Later I learn that the eye belongs to a nurse
A piece of her face seen through my bandages and delirium
A wife and mother of four, she's worked decades in this trauma center
Bringing her light and expertise to bless desperate patients like me

And there, the eye is back again
Lingering above me, focusing, boring into me, drawing me out