Heroes - Part One

Heroes - Part One

It has been a long day, but everything went so well at the hospital. I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Rosen from the Mayo Clinic, the surgeon who flew in to harvest Lynne's organs. I'll talk about that some more some other time, but right now I want to talk about the heroes at The Medical Center.

Most of you know that I am a personal injury attorney. My office deals with medical charts a lot, but we rarely see or know anything about the people who give the care to our clients, or who put their information in the medical records.

I spent the last four days in ICU, and was able to watch these folks giving care to my wife and others. I am a bit of a wordsmith, but I find myself at a loss to describe these caregivers. The usual words like "dedicated," "caring," and "compassionate" come to mind, but these fall so very short of what I saw.

I saw love, joy, patience, kindness, gentleness.... Sound familiar?

My dear wife's friends and family almost overran the hospital, and the ICU. Thursday night the halls were packed, and dozens of folks were in the ICU. Well, this is an intensive care unit. Over a dozen other critically ill patients were on the floor. We really shouldn't have been allowed in there.

And I never once heard a single complaint. Over the last four days we had dozens of people streaming through the place to see Lynne and say goodbye. I saw moments of tenderness from friends I will never forget. The staff was so gracious and accommodating throughout all of this.

Downstairs, the Medical Center reserved its main conference room on the first floor, and it stayed packed for three days, mostly with my youngest son's friends. They consumed phenomenal amounts of junk food, and the staff, without a single complaint, let them surround my son with their love while his mother was ill upstairs. I kept listening for a collective crash from the youngsters from all the stuff they were gobbling down, but it never came.

I want to identify a few of the heroes who worked so very hard to give my wife such intimate care. The nurses I am thinking of are Amy, Alex, Jason, and Barbie. I cannot thank each of you enough. God Bless you. Thanks also to Barbara and Sally. I know you guys lets us break all the rules, but we all witnessed something very special while my wife was your patient.

Thanks also to Dr. Randy Hansbrough, Dr. Jiannua Zhu, and his partner Dr. Paul Burke. Your professionalism, accessibility, compassion, and lucidity are so deeply appreciated by myself and my family.

And a special nod to my old friend Dr. Bob Watson. Dr. Bob is the Chief of Anesthesiology at the Medical Center. Most folks in Southern Kentucky do not know that we have a national treasure here. This rare man is a trusted friend, mentor, adviser, confidante, and brilliant physician who kept outrageous hours while all of this happened to make sure my family and I knew everything that was going on, and so we could navigate through this difficult time. Thank you so much old friend, and God Bless.

To the Administration: you have heroes working at your facility. One of the senior nurses today told me, "We're a family hospital." That is true. Hold your heads high, for you should proud of them. Thank you for allowing these people to excel at what they do.

This is how things are supposed to be. This is a major part of the amazing story that the Lord privileged to me be a part of.

How great is our God!

See you again very soon.

In Him,

Mike