subject: A Special Christmas Day Spent with a Warm Family [print this page] A Special Christmas Day Spent with a Warm Family
A Special Christmas Day Spent with a Warm Family
An unusual thing happened on a common Christmas Day, which shocked me all the time no matter when I recall it. It was an unusually quiet day in the emergency room on December 25. It is so quiet that we can hear nothing except for the nurses who were standing around the nurses' station grumbling about having to work on Christmas Day.
I was triage nurse that day and had just been out to the waiting room for a cup of hot cider our hospital brought in for Christmas. At that time, an admitting clerk came back and told me I had four patients waiting to be evaluated.
I whined, "I get four in all. I just out there and no one was in the waiting room."
However, I still went straight out and called the first name. Four heads showed up at my triage desk, a petite woman and three small children in rumpled clothing.
"Are you all sick?" I asked suspiciously.
"Yes," she said weakly, and lowered her head.
One by one, please, I said. One of the children had headache, but the headache weren't accompanied. Two children had earaches, but only one could tell me which ear was affected. The mother complained of a cough, but seemed to work to produce it.
Our hospital policy, however, was not to turn away any patient, so we would see them. When I explained to the mother that it might be a little while before a doctor saw her because the doctor is busy in having an operation. She responded, "Take your time, it's warm in here." She turned and, with a smile, guided her brood into the waiting room.
Then I checked their chart. No address - they were homeless. I looked out at the family huddled by the Christmas tree. They are looking at the beautiful ornament on the Christmas tree.
I went back to the nurses' station and mentioned we had a homeless family in the waiting room - a mother and four children between four and ten years of age.
The nurses, grumbling about working Christmas, turned to compassion for a family just trying to get warm on Christmas. The team went into action, much as we do when there's a medical emergency. But this one was a Christmas emergency.
We were all offered a free meal in the hospital cafeteria on Christmas Day, so we claimed that meal and prepared a banquet for our Christmas guests. We needed presents. We arranged a fellow to purchase some pretty things for all the family, including food and clothes.
As seriously as we met physical needs of the patients that came to us that day, our team worked to meet the needs, and exceed the expectations, of a family who just wanted to be warm on Christmas Day.
We took turns joining the Christmas party in the waiting room. Each nurse took his or her lunch break with the family, choosing to spend their "off duty" time with these people whose laughter and delightful chatter became quite contagious.
When it was my turn, I asked all their dreams. All of them told us their dreams. The mother said her dream was that she wants her family to be safe and warm-just like they are now.
The party lasted for a very long time. One of my coworkers gave them a gift which was presented by her boyfriend as his Christmas gift purchased from www.dinodirect.com when they left. She hoped that the small gift can carry good luck for them. All of us hope everybody can spend a warm and happy Christmas Day every year.
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