In their own words
Two nurses share stories of hope and surprises

As told to Doug Childers

Nursing in Virginia asked nurses to recount experiences caring for patients.  Included here are stories from Joelle Lemmons and Nora Wynkoop.

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Joelle Lemmons, RN, is a staff nurse at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Pauley Heart Center.  She has worked at VCU for six years and earned her degree as a registered nurse there 3½ years ago.

As the only hospital in the Richmond area doing heart transplants, we see a lot of patients.  And we treat all of them as if they’re family.  But one transplant patient who came to our unit in the early spring last year stands out in my memory.

He was the lead singer for a rock band, and he had tattoos everywhere, as well as earrings.  He was the coolest person you’ll ever meet.  The other nurses and I played his songs on MySpace.  Everyone gravitated to him.  Even if he wasn’t your patient, you knew who he was.

He was only 32 years old when he came to us, and the first time I met him, I asked, “You’re young – why are you here?”

He said, “Sit down and I’ll tell you the story.”

When he was 14, he had received chemotherapy to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and he had had a bad reaction to the chemo.  It damaged his heart.  And now, nearly 20 years later, he had reached the third of four stages of heart failure.

He stayed in our unit twice, getting a tune-up with medications so he could go home again.  Then he became too sick to stay at home, and he came to stay with us until we got a transplant heart for him.

The staff developed a great relationship with him, and the unit became a second home to him. I remember at one point he was sent to the ICU, and the nurses there said, “I don’t know what you did to that kid, but you spoiled him too much.”  One of the nurses in our unit would heat up milk to help him fall asleep at night.

Finally, we got the call that a heart had arrived for him.  Everyone on the unit always gets excited when a heart arrives.  It’s almost like giving birth:  The baby’s here!

He had one of the smoothest recoveries I’ve ever seen. He’s doing well now and comes to see us all the time.  I just got a card from his parents, saying we were his second family. 

And he’s even started back singing again.

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Nora Wynkoop, RN, has been a home health nurse with the University of Virginia’s Continuum Home Health Care for 2½ years. She studied at Howard Community College in Columbia, Md., and the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore.

As a home health nurse, I visit patients with all kinds of needs.  Sometimes they’re recovering from hip or knee surgeries.  Sometimes they’re recovering from open-heart or abdominal surgeries.  And sometimes it’s as simple as a physician asking me to visit a patient at home to make sure they understand their prescribed medicine.

One of my patients recently made an unusual request.  He’s battling an illness, and he and his wife of more than 50 years decided they could no longer afford to live in the Charlottesville area.  They have to sell many of their belongings in preparation to move in with family up north.

They also owned two miniature poodles that couldn’t go with them.  The couple had promised one of the dogs to a grandchild, since there was a history of attachment.  But the grandchild was unable take both dogs.

From the start of my visits, I had grown close to the couple, and we’d shared life stories about our kids and pets.  So one day they asked me if I’d take the second dog.

I haven’t had a dog since I was 15 years old.  My 20-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter and I already have five cats and two ferrets.  But I knew that taking this dog would give the couple a little peace of mind at a very difficult time.  It would give them one less item on this long, long list of what they worried about every day.  So I didn’t hesitate to adopt her.

A week later, I took the dog with me to visit the couple.  They were content to see her and know that she was happy.  When I was leaving, the dog readily went with me, and I know that gave them a good feeling.  For many people, their animals are their family, and for this couple, like others, having to give one up for adoption wasn’t easy.

I’ve heard some nurses say that you’ve got to stay detached from your patients.  But I don’t understand nurses who wouldn’t get involved in some way, to go the extra mile to help another’s life.  I feel it’s my moral and ethical responsibility to give of myself to my patients, whether it’s extra time in educating or simply lending an empathetic ear.  For some of these people, we may be the only face they see all week.  And if that alone doesn’t touch you as a human being, I don’t think you should be a nurse.