I would like to thank my husband’s nurse, Stacy Guill from the Cath Lab Holding Unit. From the first encounter with Stacy, I knew that my husband was in great hands. I had to step away from him for a few minutes. My husband was in a wheelchair in the hallway outside the check-in/waiting room and when I came back there, she was kneeling beside him asking him questions so she could take him back for preparation for the procedure. M introduced me and she greeted me and let me know what was happening and that she would be taking him. Why do I find the first steps in our encounter important, because to me she was showing such care and compassion by doing that simple act of kneeling beside him rather than hovering over him but at his eye level speaking softly to him. As she held on to his elbow and listened intensely to every word my husband was saying to her, I know that was putting him at ease, because deep down he was terrified of doing this procedure. As I watched him walk away, I just knew he was going to be well cared for, and that level started at her first act of compassion.

When she came to bring me back, she walked up to me and used my first name, she just didn’t stand at those double doors and yell out my name as I witnessed others doing. She talked to me as she took me back like we were friends, as she told me about the procedure the doctor did. I was amazed at how concerned she was about his back and the discomfort, and she spoke up for him to the physician, so that he was aware of all his issues. She was an excellent listener and told all my husband's concerns to heart and conveyed them to the physician. Once again, I felt assured she was going to take excellent care of him. After the physician left she just kept reassuring us with such purpose in her words that he was in the best care how much she admired him and that he would take great care of him. You know she did not have to do that, she could have just done her job and left it at that.

To put a huge cherry on top of this procedure that had a great outcome, was in that time she listened to my husband and knew about my husband. She shared that six years ago that she became a living kidney donor for someone she never met, and that gave him hope that there are people out there who just do acts of kindness just because. That was all he talked about on the way home. Being a patient on the donor list is so hard and it consumes every second of your life, but to have that special nurse on that day at that time care for my husband was truly remarkable! I know not everyone believes in a higher presence, but for me I do because out of all the nurses he could have got that day he got Stacy, to be an encouragement, to share her story, to give hope. That is what being a nurse is all about not just caring for their physical needs but caring got all their needs whether you have them for 30 minutes or 4 hours. She is truly a special person both on the inside and outside and it showed the day she cared for my husband. I am so glad she was on our team!