Jill Henkel
August 2015
Jill
Henkel
,
RN
Special Procedure Unit
Mayo Clinic Health System Franciscan Healthcare
La Crosse
,
WI
United States

 

 

 

Recently, I was in the Special Procedures Unit of the hospital for a procedure being done by Interventional Radiology. I have had this procedure done before, and knew what to expect. This time around though I was told I would not be able to get more pain meds, if anything I was going to be getting less than before.

Jill was in the room with me and was always monitoring my pain level. She stayed on top of my needs. She did an exceptional job. Then comes the rest of the story. I also had to have another procedure done to unplug my JP drains. We went into another room for that. Someone asked her why she was still there, and she said she just wanted to monitor my pain. She didn't have to be there.

Throughout my procedure I was asked by the doctor how I was doing. At times it hurt really badly, but I was able to overcome it. At one point I could not take it anymore and began to cry. I have been dealing with an ongoing infection for about a month now, and have become emotionally and mentally drained. Jill saw me crying and told the doctor I was not ok with the pain. Jill came over to me, wiped away my tears, held my hand and comforted me. At that moment I felt true compassion. Throughout my 9 day hospital stay I had never felt this before.

Jill went over and above the normal bed-side manner guidelines. It was so overwhelming for me to experience such compassion from a stranger. It gives you hope, that people really do care about what others are going through. Jill was my guardian angel. I am ever so grateful that she was there for me. The world needs more people like her.