My sister was admitted to Duke University Hospital with a diagnosis of a UTI, ischemic colitis, septic shock, and multiorgan failure. The reason why I am taking the time to write your organization is to bring attention to the team that truly did a phenomenal job with taking care of my sister and helping our family through an extraordinarily challenging journey.

First, I want to preface this letter by informing you that I am a Corporate ICU Nurse with 19 years of critical care experience. I work in all the Orlando Health Hospitals throughout central Florida. Each shift, I am assigned to a unit where there is the most need, by an App on my phone; therefore, I travel between Trauma/Burn, CVICU, Neuro, Multisystem ICU, as well as, if needed, many step-down units specialized in specific areas such as bone marrow transplantations and so forth.

One of our facilities is Orlando Regional Medical Center, which is also a level-one, teaching hospital. In addition, my oldest sister is also a nurse who specializes in outpatient gastroenterology, gynecology, and now pediatrics. The reason why I am bringing up this background information is to highlight our experience, discernment, and knowledge base.

Over three weeks, my sister fought hard, but with multiple organs failing and the inability to get off the ventilator, we had to make a difficult decision to withdraw her from life support. My sister never wanted a tracheostomy, and to stay on a ventilator is required. You see, she had Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and was progressively losing her ability to walk and perform other bodily functions. We knew that one day we would have to possibly make this difficult decision, so I made sure to have these conversations in advance between her and the rest of the family.

Every day, I would call the Surgical ICU and then update the rest of the family. Both my sister and I would explain the information and answer any questions proposed. The staff was always professional, personable, informative, kind, and supportive throughout my sister's hospital stay. In addition, it was the little things that the staff would do for our sister that made such a difference. For example, upon visiting her, we would note that she had a bow in her hair, her hair would always smell fresh and clean, and it was very apparent that she was meticulously cared for, even when we were not there.

As time progressed, our sister's condition worsened, so I drove to North Carolina and stayed for several days with her. However, she started improving, so we thought that there may be hope, and I headed back to Florida.

Unfortunately, last week, it became apparent that her health was deteriorating once again, and this time she was not going to make a recovery. I want to take the time to personally thank all the following names below for their involvement in my sister's care.

From the front desk, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, wound care nurses, chaplains, case managers, dieticians, psychiatrists, and the social work, I could not have asked for a more stellar team of people to take care of our sister. The doctors went out of their way to frequently talk to our entire family on a group chat, to ensure that we were informed and to answer any questions we had.

Although there are many people I want to thank, I especially want to bring attention to the truly remarkable care that Megan Macpherson, RN, provided.  We decided as a family to remove life support from our sister and let her pass peacefully, with our family by her side. She was only 45 years old, and she had a 16-year-old daughter and a 22-year-old son. Megan ordered bereavement trays for both days, which included snacks, drinks, coloring paper, and crayons for our family. Most notably and profoundly thoughtful was when Megan traveled to the PICU to retrieve a bear that would hold a recording of our sister's heartbeat, so her daughter could hug the bear and hear her mom. This bear was not typically provided to a withdrawal patient's family, yet Megan knew that having a recording of our sister's heartbeat would be profoundly impactful for her daughter to hold and find comfort in over the years.

With our sister's diagnosis of Charcot-Marie Tooth disease, she had endured so much pain from neuropathy, frequent falls, multiple fractures, and surgeries. I cried and pleaded that she would not sustain any additional anxiety and discomfort in her last hours of life, as she had already suffered so much. Megan frequently assessed her comfort over the course of two days and made sure that she did not suffer. Although this is beyond hard, our family's wish was that she would pass peacefully and with dignity. Megan went above and beyond to ensure and anticipate that every need was met. Before we could even convey a concern of discomfort, Megan was already walking into the room and providing a bolus of medication.

I will be forever grateful to her for the care, love, grace, and dignity she gave to my sister in her last days. I have helped many families go through this difficult journey, but I have never experienced it personally. I am so appreciative of everyone involved with my sister's care and how they worked to give her the best outcome possible. Although we understand that medicine can only provide so much, I want you to know that our family walked out of your hospital for the last time with a sense of peace, gratitude, and admiration for a team that worked tirelessly until the end.

There are no words that I can write to fully encapsulate and convey what your team has meant to my family and me, but from the bottom of my heart and everything that I am, thank you. I hope that you take the time and recognize all the people involved in my sister's care, because they truly deserve it.