A 65-year-old patient with a long complicated history ultimately landed on the CTU, where he and his family made an instant connection with their nurse. Brenda established a close rapport and relationship with the wife through a shared cultural connection. Even when Brenda wasn't the patient's nurse, she would go in and check on the family offering her time and support to his concerned wife. As time went on, the patient became further critically ill and in his final days, the patient's wife expressed her desire for her husband to receive palliative care. Brenda, once again, went above and beyond to truly advocate for this. During this time, the wife also expressed concern to Brenda that she had been unable to work for the past few months and was worried about being able to afford the proper funeral services that her beloved husband deserved.
Brenda provided endless emotional support and comfort for both the patient and his wife. Through her loving and supportive approach to care for both this patient and his family, Brenda took it upon herself to reach out to multiple funeral homes to find one that could work with the wife on pricing while still executing the family's wishes in terms of her husband being cremated. While being extremely thankful to Brenda the wife still expressed fear that she simply may not have enough money to cover these discounted funeral costs.
Sadly, in late November, the patient passed. Brenda knew that this family had touched the hearts of so many on the unit. She began asking for donations to help pay for the services to put this loving husband to rest in a manner that gave him the dignity he deserved. Within 24 hours she was able to raise $650, and within a week she raised $1350 for her family, which would cover the funeral costs and help the wife as she worked to regain some stability in her life. Brenda is an extremely caring and empathetic nurse who was able to create such a lasting impact for this beloved patient and his family.