Peter’s first interaction with my family was with my wife the morning/afternoon following my MIDCAB mitral valve repair surgery. Peter was apparently the Cardiac ICU charge nurse for the shift when I came out of surgery. While I was under sedation for those 3-4 hours, he was observed as aggressively focused on keeping me alive and then allowing my wife to stay with me during the dark passage of regaining consciousness and the personal battle to revive from the ventilator.

Then my consciousness of Peter began with his care for me through the rest of that first dayshift into transitioning me into the first extremely uncomfortable night.

The following dayshift I had moved from the bed to the recliner chair in my cubicle by 5 am where I could see the nurse’s station.

One thing I was conscious of was the young, intelligent people that the hospital had gathered to work in this unit; but the most striking observation was how Peter worked with training my current nurse, during the moments that the patients did not physically require their services. He would sit and explain elements regarding her training, and as I related my observations to her, I described it as teaching fellowship.

His extreme patience to teach her and her extreme patience to be taught.