Deciding to nominate a nurse for this award was both an easy and difficult decision. Given the length of time I recently spent in MMC as a patient (over 14 weeks between the Prenatal Center, Mother Baby, and the NICU) and the incredible level of care that my family received, I did not want to miss the opportunity to provide positive feedback, particularly for the nursing staff that literally carried us through one of the most heart wrenching rollercoasters of our lives. Ignoring my obvious handicap of being post-partum to twin boys, the most difficult part of putting this together was to single out a nurse when we felt held by so many throughout our hospital stay. The depth of the gratitude that we feel for the nurses who looked after us and helped to make us parents to two healthy little boys will forever be a part of us, including every single nurse in the Prenatal Center (PNC) where we spent the majority of our time.
With that said, you can't spend 63 days in the PNC and not nominate Mary Hutchison for an award that represents the generosity of spirit and the type of loving care that this was intended to recognize. I know that my husband and I are certainly not the only ones who had our lives touched by Mary, so this nomination should probably be sent from all of us patients who use to ask each other in passing, "have you had Mother Mary?" I can't count the number of people who had lovely Mary stories and willingly shared them. It is clear that this is a woman who is has spent her entire career committed to caring about the excruciating details that make up patients' long days at MMC.
It's hard to capture the level of anxiety, fear, and exhaustion that a pregnant woman feels when their unborn child's life hangs in the balance. But out of all of the low probability, high consequence events that my husband and I experienced throughout our ugly pregnancy, ending up with Mary as one of our primary nurses was certainly one of the most positive. Simply put, she is the nurse whom you want caring for the people you love most. In my case, these were my unborn sons. And I trusted her completely to help inform our plan of care which was never a clear roadmap given the number of high-risk complications we experienced with our pregnancy. She always checked in on us even when she wasn't working. It truly felt like she went through the entire experience with us and was equally as invested in the outcome. How someone can show up so completely every day and be so present with people in their most vulnerable and often volatile state is something I don't fully understand.
I used to laugh at the number of things Mary would come up with on any given day to help make things a little lighter or more comfortable for me and my family. From hemorrhoid tubs and back rubs to airbeds and research papers on obscure complications affecting my pregnancy, Mary tended to all the details. My comfort and wellbeing were always one of her top concerns. And when you are pregnant with twins on continuous monitoring, comfort is an elusive goal most likely to never be achieved. That never deterred Mary. She was my champion and advocate for all things that impact quality of life as a long-term patient in MMC including better patient food (seriously MMC, you need to work on this!), alignment amongst our care team, and any treatment that held even a remote possibility of making you forget that you are pregnant with twins on continuous monitoring.
In hindsight, there were countless decision points that ultimately impacted the trajectory of my sons' health after I gave birth and Mary certainly influenced some of the most important ones. I was admitted into MMC at 23 weeks pregnant with a ruptured amniotic sac and a bleak prognosis for a healthy pregnancy, and left MMC on Mother's Day with two healthy little boys. I have to believe I was not an easy patient to care for given the high likelihood of a negative outcome. Knowing this made giving birth to our sons all the more special and made the people who helped make this happen feel like our new extended family. I will make sure that our boys know all about Mary and others as we retell them the story of how they came to us. To say we are grateful is a gross understatement.
I can't imagine a more worthy person for special recognition than Mary. And whether Mary is individually recognized will not impact in any way the standard of care she provides as it truly comes from a special place of caring that is simply intrinsic to who she is.