Rebecca was working the night shift the second night after my surgery. When I came in, I was in kind of a rough shape; my bed was soiled. So, I pushed the button, and she came in herself. She made sure she got me all cleaned up, she changed all the bed sheets, sat down with me, and talked with me. She was just really amazing, and throughout the night she kept coming in every so often to check my urinals and make sure they weren’t full. By the end of her shift, I complimented her, told her how well she did, and I’ll tell you just the way I told her. She treated me as if I were her father. I’m guessing she’s about the same age as my kids, but the loving care that she had for me, a complete stranger, was the same as if she were caring for her own parent. It was just amazing.

When she came on the second night, she checked on me with that big smile of hers, asked how I was doing, and she proceeded to take care of me as good as the night before. We’d been hoping that I could get some sleep, but my blood pressure was too low, and she had to keep coming in to check it and make sure I was safe. But again, she treated me like family. That was just inspiring since you don’t see that every day.

The next morning, after she got off, the food service made a mistake, and they fed me something that had peppers in it, which I’m allergic to. After one bite, I could feel something going on with my airway, so I pushed the call button, and one of the CNAs came in. I don’t think she understood why I was calling her of any other staff but by the time my breathing got to the point where I could barely rasp out a couple syllables, I was just yelling “epi, epi”! Rebecca heard it, popped her head in, and quickly went out, but then the room got flooded with people. Oh, by God, they were amazing.

I used to work in fire EMS, and I know what coordinated chaos is. The whole team was just phenomenal. I really want to single out Rebecca because she went way above and beyond.