My brother was admitted to Christiana Care when it was determined that he needed open heart surgery. All seemed to be going well post-surgery, but then it was determined he needed to be rushed back to the OR for a life-saving surgery. When we were allowed to see him the amount of medical equipment and the number of bags of medicine was overwhelming. But there in the room with him was a nurse. Constantly moving, checking equipment, bags of medicine, inputting data, this came to be a routine for the next two weeks. But no matter who it was, male or female, the greeting was always the same. They smiled gave us their name, asked for ours and told us, "I will be taking care of your brother today". Those words so simple and yet so comforting. Their skill was obvious as was their knowledge. They answered every question and encouraged us to ask more! They explained in detail what they were doing, but it was their compassion that impressed us most. They rejoiced at every bit of progress. Ultimately the progress ceased and we had to make the difficult decision to let our brother pass. We were at peace knowing that our new found family at CVICU would be there with him on the last part of his journey. Many of these nurses stopped in at the end of their shift to say farewell to our brother and console us. When my brother passed, he was assisted by two nurses, Cathy Wade and Kristen Clark who had originally cared for him. It was God's grace that had them share the last shift of his care along with charge nurse Kathy Micale.
Our family is eternally grateful to this team for their extraordinary care of our brother. God bless all of the nurses in CVICU, truly amazing professionals.