Patient Appreciation of Healing Acts of Kindness
In this piece, Steve Lyons of Arlington offers a glimpse into patient and family-centered care at BWH from the patient’s perspective. Lyons was a patient on Tower 15D, and the excellent nursing care he received prompted him to submit this first-person account to the Arlington Advocate, which published it July 2, 2009.
We read almost every day that the American health care system is broken, and the troubles are real enough. But I know from personal experience that at least one part of the system can still work marvelously: the care of post-operative patients.
I recently checked into Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston for intestinal surgery. I woke up in post-op Pod 15D, and from snatches of overheard conversation I soon realized I had some things in common with my new roommate beyond the curtain.
His name was Jack Canniff, a hockey legend in Arlington, the community where my wife, Aida, and I have lived for 20 years. Jack was a star wing on the 1949 Arlington Spy Ponders team that won the New England championship. He went on to play for Boston College and then coached the University of Massachusetts Minutemen to a national hockey championship. One of the players on that team was later gym teacher to my three kids, and those Amherst icemen were covered by a sportswriter who sat right behind me when I was a cub reporter at the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton.
Twenty-four years older and recovering from a left arm amputation, Jack was in much more pain than I. Yet when my three teenage kids came for a visit, he took the time to talk to each of them in turn about the Arlington schools and about UMass, where my oldest just finished his freshman year. And when I trundled by on my frequent trips to the bathroom, Jack often cracked an eyelid and offered a word of encouragement.
During my week in 15D, I met nearly the entire nursing staff – two dozen women (and a few men) from a wide variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. Some were fresh out of nursing school; others had been there decades. But what all of them shared was a remarkable caring touch.
They took our vital signs, gave us our medications, helped us into and out of bed, washed and dressed us, cleaned up our accidents and made our broken bodies as comfortable as they could be. And they did it all with a reservoir of good humor, patience and tenderness I had never seen before. Day after day, I was stunned by simple acts of kindness and grace.
As I lay there listening, I was struck by the critical role communication plays in nursing. Each nurse would, of course, ask how we were feeling and whether we needed anything, but they also talked to us. They asked me about my family, what kind of work I did and what I was reading to pass the days. For Jack the topics included his black lab Zeke, his days as a math teacher, and especially his days on the ice for Arlington, BC and UMass. The nurses knew instinctively that these conversations were critical in keeping our spirits up. Their words were every bit as healing as the medicine our doctors had prescribed.
One day when Aida and the kids came for a visit, my nurse, Margaret Costello, met my older son Danny. “Oh, you’re the one with the 3.94 GPA,” she said, remembering what I’d told her about his spring semester at UMass. “Word travels fast,” he said, surprised and a little sheepish. “Well, it’s because your Dad is proud of you,” she said. Somehow she knew just the right thing to say to make both Danny and me feel better. Later, when I went to thank her, I was so moved by her thoughtfulness I could barely choke out the words.
Whatever lies ahead for Jack and me, I know we’ll be in good hands if our future caregivers are anything like Amanda, Amy, Bettina, Bob, Caprie, Courtney, David, Heather, Janette, Jenna, Kate, Kathleen, Kaylie, Leanne, Libby, Mabs, Margaret, Martine, Melissa, Ruthie, Saba, September, Sumara and the rest of the nursing staff at Brigham & Women’s Pod 15D. They’re one part of the health care system that doesn’t need fixing.
Stephen Lyons is a writer and film producer with Moreno/Lyons Productions in Arlington.