Unfiltered Story #237168

My mother has Alzheimer’s and lives in a care facility. She was quite ill a while ago and the facility sent her to hospital — they didn’t have a doctor on duty during that particular shift, and because she wasn’t able to speak for herself, they were worried enough that they felt it was important that she be checked out properly.

I met the ambulance in the emergency room when they arrived. Everything was very chaotic, and Mum was seen by a stream of nurses and doctors, each successive person going back to the beginning instead of progressing with any sort of examination or treatment.

Understandably, Mum began to get upset and agitated, and there was one nurse in particular, who was the head nurse on that shift, whose manner was making Mum more and more distressed.

Fortunately, the shift changed while Mum was there. The head nurse on the next shift was fantastic. She immediately calmed Mum down and got her cooperation, much to my great relief.

I truly appreciated that the second head nurse managed to make the experience less traumatic for Mum than the previous nurse, so before we left to return Mum to her care facility, I made a point of going to thank her for everything she did for my mother. It just made me sad that she was so surprised anyone would make the effort to thank her. Medical professionals aren’t infallible, but when they make a difficult situation easier, please take the time to thank them.