In March of 1987, I was a senior in high school preparing to attend college to get a degree in Musical Theatre and Dance. My grandmother, Frances, went to the hospital for an outpatient aortic angioplasty. I tried to skip school to go with her because I just felt like something was wrong, but my mother sent me off to school.
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Maria E. VanHart, RN[/caption]
Every day after school I'd go to my job at Dairy Queen, but that day I had to talk myself into going to work. When I arrived at Dairy Queen, my manager was waiting for me. She was at my car window before I could place the car in "park". She told me the hospital chaplain had called and requested I come to the hospital.
When I got to the hospital, I was escorted to a private room where my mother and the chaplain were waiting for me. Together, we went to see Frances in the ICU. She was on a breathing machine and heart medicine. The ICU nurse caring for her was amazing.
A few days later, my mom consented to the removal of the medicines and machines that were keeping Frances alive. I do not remember the nurse's name, but because of the love and compassion she showed a 16-year-old child who just lost the matriarch of her family, my path was forever changed. I started my journey into the world of nursing that August to help save lives.
Saving Lives and Providing Comfort
During my first clinical rotation, my med-surg nursing professor told me I would never be a good nurse. I wish I could find her today. After 30 years in nursing I have the alphabet soup behind my name, and I have countless letters, cards, and thank you notes from my patients and their families.
As a new grad nurse I held a grandmother as she collapsed at the bedside of her 4-day-old grandson, Nathaniel, as he released his last breath. While I always hoped I could save lives as a nurse, I came to realize the impact I could have on loved ones, as well.
As a flight nurse I cared for a victim of the 2017 shooting at the Las Vegas music festival, as my flight crew returned her and her fiance home to Boston for her medical treatment.
While on a Live Aboard dive boat in the middle of the Atlantic, I provided emergency care to a friend and fellow diver who had a stroke while diving. We were about 12 hours from land when our friends came to find us. We got her to Nassau in the Bahamas and she was airlifted to Miami.
Last year, as a representative of the Veterans Administration, I deployed to a COVID-19 ICU where I held the hand of a retired nurse as she took her last breath. In her final days, her son would sit outside her isolation room watching and speaking to her via an iPad.
I was honored by the President of the Emergency Nurses Association in 2021 for my actions in 2020 on a remote Nevada highway, where I cared for 10 family members -- victims of a single-vehicle accident -- until help arrived. As a result, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs honored me with a 2021 VA Secretary's Award for Excellence.
My Suffering Became Empathy for Others
My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 35 and passed in 2000 at the age of 59. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 at the age of 34. I have suffered the loss of my entire family to various illnesses. I chose to pull myself up by my bootstraps and not wallow in my pain. My suffering has given me the empathy to be the nurse I am today.
Sometimes I wish I had followed my dreams of touring the world singing and dancing and signing autographs. Oh, what might have been! Then I think about being able to save lives and all the people whom I have cared for while they fought through the darkest times in their lives. I have lived a blessed life and I've been fortunate to use my skills and compassion to help strangers suffer just a little less.
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