My daughter, who’s 12, was transferred here by Air Care. She had hemorrhaged in her lungs. We vaguely remember Brooke from that night. Fast forward a couple of weeks, and Brooke took our nurse’s place. She looked familiar and told us we probably wouldn’t remember her, but she was the admitting nurse. I had been searching for days to figure out who that first nurse was who helped save our daughter’s life. So, we asked if she could tell us the story.

You see, it was soon verified for me that whoever this nurse was, she was truly an angel. Brooke’s shift was about to end that day when she heard the next shift was going to be shorthanded. She easily could have brushed that off and been thankful her day was about over. Instead, she decided to stay and help out.

It wasn’t long after she said she would stay that our call came in from Mercy Cedar Rapids. They had called for an ambulance, but then our daughter continued to get worse, and they upgraded the call to Air Care. I remember kissing her and telling her how much I loved her before we were removed from the room so she could be intubated. Having no clue if she was alive or not left me a mess full of mom guilt.

Little did I know she had Brooke, who knew there was a family in the waiting room, a mom who was scared to death. So hard as my daughter was trying to hang on, she had Brooke fighting for the same thing for her, as she squeezed bag after bag of blood into her. I know the entire team, from Mercy to Air Care to the crew in the room, saved our daughter’s life. But Brooke kept squeezing that blood bag after bag into her, even when it just kept coming out. We owe Brooke so much.

When we heard the story. I cried and got to hug our angel nurse. I thanked her for everything. We then talked about our daughter’s treatment plan, after telling Brooke all about her and who she was. Once we were done, she said she wanted to look into some things that may help with coming off all these medications. Brooke took it all on, set up a plan, and we watched in amazement over the next few shifts until we were moved to another floor. Everything ran like a well-oiled machine. She set everyone up for success, and our daughter did great with everything.

After that shift, Brooke always made time to pop in and check on her. Brooke will forever be family to us. 

Thank you, Brooke—even though you say you don’t need thanks. We love you!