It is not unusual for Jessica Faust to go above and beyond for her patients, but there is one particular time she displayed and an extraordinary level of compassion for one of the patients on our unit. Several months ago, there was a patient that came in for a transplant. He encountered so many post-operative complications and came close to death. The road to recovery for him was long and for every step forward he took, there seemed to be several steps back as well. He had started becoming withdrawn and depressed. He wouldn't look anyone in the eye. He would hardly talk. He had basically given up hope of leaving the hospital. The nurses on the unit had been doing everything to try and cheer him up including taking him outside to get some sun encouraging him every day to not to give up.
One day the patient had requested that he would feel better if he were able to get his hair washed. The patient had long beautiful hair when he initially came in, and it had now been reduced to one big oily knotted mess. Jessica went out and bought him some hair care supplies and leave in conditioner. The patient was bedbound at the time, so she improvised and made a portable sink using a clean bedpan. She washed and shampooed his hair in the bed, then combed and unknotted his hair. She bonded with the patient by doing this on most nights when she worked and even helped when he wasn't even her patient.
The extra time Jessica spent with the patient helped with his loneliness as well as with his confidence because he would get so many compliments on his hair. The change in his demeanor was obvious to all who cared for him. He started smiling and talking more as well as participating in his care. The patient eventually was discharged and had a successful recovery. Thanks, Jessica, for living out our Mission of providing world-class patient care.