“Her Toes Fell Off Into My Hand”: 50 Moments That Changed Healthcare Workers Forever

Caring for a baby in the same NICU bed my daughter died in. They had the same diagnosis. The baby’s last name was my daughter’s first name.

Losing my 8 week old daughter and my boss calling me the next day asking when I'd be returning to work, on the pediatric floor…

18 yr old, engaged, with brain cancer signing on to hospice. Our chaplain married her and her fiance after she held on for 4 days. She passed right after.

Being a nurse in ICU. Caring for a 25 yo woman who got H1N1 and was on life support for over a month. Pressors, vent, the whole 9. Family was never there but wouldn’t take her off life support. I took her sock off and her toes fell off into my hand. She was rotting. Had to call ethics committee.

Doing CPR on two babies who where siblings.. while the shooter was alive and a few rooms down.. he lived. They didn’t.

Doing compressions on someone my age who was assaulted beyond the point of recognition by her ab**er. Haven’t really been the same since that call.

My favorite patient; I work in memory care and she knew EVERYTHING about me. I layed in bed with her during her final days. She told me she’ll always be rooting and watching over me. She told me to stay on earth for as long as I can.

The scream of a father finding out his 3yo son was ran over and didn’t make it…

Doing post mortem care on a young mom while her toddler was asleep in the cot set up beside the bed.

I once saw a NICU nurse rocking a dead baby back and forth in her arms as if it were alive. Did that all the way to the morgue.

Post mortem SANE exam on a 16 yo.

i work in a pharmacy and watching elders have to leave a medication they need because it’s $2k+ makes me feel the lump in my throat everytime.

I sat with a patient who told me “I don’t know if my baby is my dad's or step dad's.”

I had a patient that wasn’t doing great after a stroke but he said he was saving up his strength to watch his granddaughters wedding on zoom… he had so much energy and then an hour before the wedding he died and I sobbed so hard.

When a family had to put secret cameras in their mother’s room at an assisted living facility bc of suspicion that the staff was ab**ing her…….and unfortunately they were. She had bruising all over her body.

Seeing a man in his 80s being dropped off (old folks home) and his daughter saying she'd pick him up later for his grandbaby's soccer game. He sat by a windows waiting everyday. They never even came to get his belongings when he passed.

My patient asked me for a pen and paper to make his wife a Valentine’s day card. He made the card and then coded that night.

The screams of a mom who came in expecting to deliver a healthy baby and found out it was stillborn.

Trying to draw blood an 8 month old neglected baby that weighed the same as my baby at 2 months. (11lbs, he couldn’t even hold up his head).

Holding the hand of a 16y.o being put to sleep for surgery to take out his voice box(cancer) and his last words being “please make sure I wake up.”