December 2012
Leeanna
Kanbar
,
RN
Medical
Kaiser Permanente Anaheim Medical Center
Anaheim
,
CA
United States

 

 

 

I am a nurse whose background is in Homehealth. I was in the hospital for an infection that I had for months. It was difficult to diagnose what kind of infection I had until suddenly I had a lot of pain. I am a mother of two lovely daughters ages 4 and 14.

One morning I was lying in my hospital bed when nurse Leeanna came into my room to check on my IV. She was so kind and sweet that I fell in love with her right from the start. She would come in and make my bed for me and we would talk while she would help with anything I needed.

While she was in my room one day I introduced her to my friend Oscar. I had been talking to him about admitting himself into the hospital because he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 Liver Failure. He is 31 years old and has been drinking since age 7 due to his parents influence. While Leeanna was in the room Oscar began to open up to her. At one point in the conversation she had asked him, "Don't you want to give your daughter away at her wedding?" Oscar then began to tear up and responded with, "Yes I do." Leeanna and I told him how important it was that he admits himself into the hospital. He promised us both he would, but was just terrified of what the doctors may say.

After our talk, Oscar asked Leeanna, "What is your favorite flower?" she responded with "Orchids". He then left and came back a little later with roses for us both. He told Leeanna they did not have her favorite flower, but he would be back one day to give her Orchids. Leeanna thanked him and gave him a Life Strength wrist band to strengthen him to fight his illness.

The very next day he checked himself into UCI. He is young and a good, caring, loving person that was given a substance he should not have been given at a very young age. For the past year and a half I have been his caregiver and best friend. It is very hard to see him go from healthy to sickly so quickly. He now needs a liver transplant and it will take about 3 to 6 months to receive.

I feel that it was fate for all of us to meet each other and due to nurse Leeanna's care Oscar had decided not to give up the fight for his life.