Gem City Sports Network

From Doug Brown

co owner Gem City Sports Network

These are some unsung heroes and deserve the recognition.

This past week was a bad week but also a good week.  I have met some outstanding people.

On the bad side .

Early Monday morning I was awoken with some chest and arm pain. Took a nitro pill and the pain didn’t go away. So I called the ambulance and they brought me to Good Samaritan Hospital.

I went through a bunch of tests and found out that I need to have a stent put in my heart. Angioplasty. The doctor found that one of my arteries were 100% blocked and I needed open heart surgery. Not good, not good at all.

So I have been at Good Sam ever since.

The good side.

You know when you start a job or move to a new house or apartment, you want to get to know the people around you right? Or if you have go to the hospital for one reason or another, you would like to get to know who is caring for you?  Here’s something that I have experienced since I’ve been in the hospital.

Everybody has a passion for something. I have a passion for sports broadcasting. Doctors and nurses for medicine and health care.

While I’ve been in the hospital, I have met some wonderful and beautiful people.

The nurses and patient care techs do a fantastic job and are really the unsung heroes of the health care field.

I don’t know how these nurses and care techs do it. I am not going to name names but when they read this they’ll know who they are.

During the first couple of days I was on the second floor and that’s where I thought I would be until my surgery. But that was not the case. I was moved to the third floor 2 days after I was admitted.
One young lady drove almost 2 hours to get to work. Another not so far. As a matter of fact I found out that she lives in the same town as I do. She always made sure I was taken care of with me blood pressure, air intake , temperature and blood sugar.

When she found out that I was moving, she seemed a little upset over it. She stayed with me until my room was ready and then wheeled me up to my new room. She stayed with me a couple of minutes and then went back to work.

I thought nurses weren’t suppose to get attached to a patient but it’s hard not to do. And some patients are hard to forget, especially the good ones.

In this case she said that I was one of her favorite patients. I guess I was a good patient and wasn’t a royal pain in the ass like some patients can be. I was always joking around and having a good time.   In all, all of the nurses on the second floor were fantastic.

Then on the third floor they had the job of preparing me for surgery. Another great group of people.

All these women have a life outside of the hospital. They have their families to take care of and how they juggle their job and families I’ll never know. It’s very tiring and they need to be rewarded for it.
I found one young lady who, to me is a fantastic person as well as nurse.

She is a single mother of four and how she juggles her job and family is truly amazing. On Saturday, she worked a 12 hour shift and then headed to her daughters softball tournament that lasted late into the night. Then turned around and came back to work the next day for another 12 hours.
During the time, on Saturday, she was running around helping patients. I noticed her every once in a while going past my room. And it seemed she never stopped. And by the end of the day it looked like she ran a marathon. She looked beat.

She also had to put up with all kinds of situations and dealt with them. Some good, some bad. I don’t know how she does it. And she does it with a smile. She is a wonderful and beautiful person.

Another young lady puts in anywhere from 12 to 15 hour shifts. She is married and also has to juggle the job and family time. She told me that she worked in her daughters concession stand to help raise funds for their organization. And now it’s back to work for another 12 to 15 hours.

It’s the young women like this and they all take satisfaction helping the people in need of medical care and they deserve a huge pat on the back and a major thank you for all they do. They are definitely the unsung heroes at this  hospital.
Thank you ladies for making my stay at Good Samaritan bearable.