Teryl Dorham calls JPS nurses “angels with stethoscopes.”
Ms. Dorham, of Fort Worth, spent eight months in the JPS oncology unit on Tower 7 as she underwent treatment for central nervous system lymphoma —eight days of chemotherapy, then off for a week, then back to the hospital.
During her long stay, she made a special connection with most of the nurses on the unit, who made an effort to make it feel like her home away from home. They held her hands. They took time to talk during their breaks. They listened.
“I was there so long they were like my family,” she says. “Even though I didn’t want to be there they made it easier for me to be there. Being away from my daughter, they were sensitive about that. They really prayed with me and cried with me when they saw that I was down. They’re not just nurses, they’re real people. They know that it is important to take care of not just the body but the soul.”
Ms. Dorham gave some nurses special nicknames.
There’s Ariana, who she calls “Miss Sunshine” — “She was just so happy all the time.”
And there’s Glenda, “The Good Nurse of the North” — “She would come in and act like it was a privilege to wait on me. She was so gentle so precise and so ready.”
To show her appreciation, she presented the unit with a giant thank you card she ordered online. It lists the names of each nurse who cared for her, doctors who managed her treatment and a housekeeper who looked after her. The card is mounted on the wall in front of the nurses’ station on the seventh floor.
“Thank you so much for taking such great care of me during my LONG stay with you. I am so deeply moved by the depth of feeling you showed me along with the medical care,” she wrote. “Thank you for being my ‘angels’ during this difficult time for me.”