I took my husband to the Noble ER for back and leg pain. He was quickly transferred to BMC due to an underlying blood cancer. In the next few hours, he was decompensating and was transferred from S3Onc to intercare and finally the ICU. Every single staff in the ICU was outstanding, but there was an extra special angel, and her name was Kayla Sessler, RN.

My husband was in the ICU for 3 weeks. He was in multisystem organ failure, on dialysis, intubated and on a ventilator. His care was extremely complex and included all of the above and multiple platelet and red blood cell infusions. Although he was unresponsive and unable to speak, Kayla took the time to get to know him as a person through us, his family. She asked us about his likes, interests, hobbies and where he liked to vacation. She asked us about our family life and what we liked to do. She found out what kind of music he liked and put it on in the background.

Kayla wrote things about him on the patient board in his room so others would also know. She did all this in such a calm and caring manner all at the same time she was performing very complex critical nursing care. My husband had been fine until the moment he went to the ER. This whole experience had completely rocked our world. By having us talk about him and who he was, it helped every single one of us.

We shared happy stories and memories, our hopes for the future and the love of our family. And if we just needed to say how frightened we were, she helped us do that too. I honestly don’t know if we would have stayed so strong emotionally without her. My husband miraculously survived and is getting stronger every day. He has a long road of treatment ahead, but he is ready for it. Our entire family is eternally grateful for Kayla Sessler who changed our lives.