Nurses bring hospitalized couple together for final moment

A wife and husband were both hospitalized at UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies at the same time, on different floors. The husband was nearing the end of his life.

Nurses on the units collaborated to bring the couple together in his final moments. They put their hospital beds next to each other. The spouses held hands, and she was able to tell him she loved him.

“Just to hold his hand – something so simple can mean the world,” said the wife, who added that the nurses were committed to making it happen after she had gone more than two weeks without seeing her husband. “They worked so hard, figuring things out and getting it so that he could fit in here.”

The husband had been on the medical progressive care unit (MPCU), and his wife was on the cardiac unit. MPCU nurse Tanay Kontz called cardiac nurse Melanie Roth to coordinate the visit for the couple. Roth discussed it with charge nurse Alicia Rains and nurse Kylie Baker.

Baker suggested admitting the husband to the cardiac unit, in the room next door. Roth relayed the plan to Kontz, and the four led an extraordinary, patient-centered plan of care for the monumental life moment.

“A key component for ‘extraordinary’ is a culture that promotes teams to work together and freedom to critically think,” said John Gerstenberger, cardiac nurse manager. “This team was able to apply that as demonstrated by their ability to come together and do what was right for the patients involved, which supports our UCHealth value of integrity.”

Through collaboration among a total of eight nurses, two patient care assistants, respiratory therapy staff and others, the couple and their family members were able to be together during the husband’s final hours.

“They let you know that there are good and angelic people in this world,” the wife said. “They didn’t have to do that. They could have went on about their business. But they didn’t. And I’ll be forever grateful – very grateful – to them for that.”

She said it is important that they recognize they are appreciated.

“There is nothing big enough to thank them for what they did. It was said somewhere: ‘In a world of cactus, be a sunflower.’ They all were sunflowers that day, and they took some of the pain away.”