December 2015
Mary Ellen Soulier, Dawn Morrill and
Helen Krajick
,
RNs
Operating Room, Pre-op
St. Peter's Hospital
Albany
,
NY
United States

 

 

 

A patient of Dr. H's presents to St. Peter's Hospital for a Diagnostic Laparoscopy and Whipple. The patient and his wife have been together for 57 years. The patient and his wife are together in the pre-op area when she is asked to step out into the waiting room with the expectation she will be asked back in for a hug and kiss before he goes to surgery. She is called back to the bay, but because of her age, she walks cautiously and slowly. Upon arriving to the bay, she finds that her husband is gone without ever receiving the blessing of love from his spouse of over half a century. She becomes distraught with grief and fear and succumbs to tears and is unable to move. Mary Ellen Soulier finds her sobbing and moves her to a private space. Mary Ellen then searches out the assistance of Helen Krajick and Dawn Morrill and after a short consultation, Helen and Dawn dress the wife in a 'bunny suit' and bring her into the OR to see her husband and give him that vital and necessary expression of love.