Kay Small
November 2021
Kay
Small
,
BSN, RN, PCCN
IMC
Sentara Princess Anne Hospital
Virginia Beach
,
VA
United States
He felt safe with Kay because she took care of him when he was in desperate need of help.
Let me tell you all about the most amazing nurse ever! Her name is Kay Small and she was one of K’s nurses when he was admitted to the Step Down Unit at SPAH. She and I spoke the night K passed and she told me she came to his room before her shift each night to check on him. She said this isn’t something she normally does but she had a connection with K the night he came to her floor.
She shared with me, what had to be extremely difficult for her, that K’s breathing was very shallow and she didn’t expect him to continue much longer (not her exact words but I cannot remember the exact words because of what happened next). She got a call and said she was going to come back in a little bit.
After she left, I went back to K’s side and pressed his heart monitor to see how his heart rate and oxygen were doing. It started to fall and continued to fall. His brother and I were by his side when K passed.
Earlier in the day, the hospice coordinator had given his brother a booklet called “The Eleventh Hour”. I had been reading it earlier in the day and the book explained that some people will wait for someone to arrive/ leave before they will pass. K was waiting for Kay to come to visit him and let him know it was ok. I am convinced of this. He felt safe with Kay because she took care of him when he was in desperate need of help. I will forever be indebted to Kay and all other nurses who cared for K in the last week of his life.
Today she reached out to our family to find out about funeral arrangements so she could attend. Can you believe this? I couldn’t, It brought me to tears that even a complete stranger who was simply doing her job cared about him that much.
So if you’re a nurse and you ever wonder if you impact a person’s life or their family, please know you do and we thank you for being there for us.
She shared with me, what had to be extremely difficult for her, that K’s breathing was very shallow and she didn’t expect him to continue much longer (not her exact words but I cannot remember the exact words because of what happened next). She got a call and said she was going to come back in a little bit.
After she left, I went back to K’s side and pressed his heart monitor to see how his heart rate and oxygen were doing. It started to fall and continued to fall. His brother and I were by his side when K passed.
Earlier in the day, the hospice coordinator had given his brother a booklet called “The Eleventh Hour”. I had been reading it earlier in the day and the book explained that some people will wait for someone to arrive/ leave before they will pass. K was waiting for Kay to come to visit him and let him know it was ok. I am convinced of this. He felt safe with Kay because she took care of him when he was in desperate need of help. I will forever be indebted to Kay and all other nurses who cared for K in the last week of his life.
Today she reached out to our family to find out about funeral arrangements so she could attend. Can you believe this? I couldn’t, It brought me to tears that even a complete stranger who was simply doing her job cared about him that much.
So if you’re a nurse and you ever wonder if you impact a person’s life or their family, please know you do and we thank you for being there for us.