March 2022
Denise
Johnson
,
RN
ED
MountainView Regional Medical Center
Las Cruces
,
NM
United States
Denise would peek in, enter and touch my mom's hand or shoulder, always with a warm smile and caring voice.
It was an extremely cold afternoon with a predication of freezing rain and snow through the night. What was to be an emergency trip to the optometrist turned out to be a dreaded trip to the emergency room at MountainView, at the request of her optometrist. My mother had a stroke on the day after having celebrated her 98th birthday, leaving her with a loss of vision in her left eye. She was admitted around 5 pm. The hospital was short-staffed and the attention was minimal, with the exception of a warm, caring ED RN, Denise. She is a young lady with a heart of gold and a bedside manner to match. No matter how busy the staff was, Denise kept checking in on my mom, making sure she was comfortable, bringing her a warm blanket, and making sure she was calm as she could. She would tell my mom was quite frightened at this point, not knowing what the outcome might be. The night dragged on, Denise would peek in, enter and touch my mom's hand or shoulder, always with a warm smile and caring voice. It was now 4 am. We had been in the ED for about 10 hours. It was time to go home. I went to bring the car around and was met with the build-up of ice and snow on my car. My mom and I were not prepared for this weather since earlier we thought we would return home for the visit to the optometrist. Denise carefully helped my mom into the car and with a small blanket I always carry with me, lovingly covered her and buckled her in, with the tender can loving care as if it were her grandmother. She gave mom a hug, wished her well, gently closed the door, and waved us off. The vision of that "Angel" standing in the freezing weather at 4 am waving, remains with my mom. She had lost her vision in the left eye but as we drove off, her right eye had enabled her to see "caring warmth" waving through the freezing cold. My mom and I are extremely grateful to have met Denise.