What Kindness Mary Showed. What a Healer!
Written by a coworker:
One night Mary had a patient who came out into the hallway asking about iron. He said he needed to touch something made of iron and that he wanted to go into the boiler room to touch it. At first, Mary thought he was confused. After talking with the patient, Mary found out that he believed iron has healing powers.
Mary tried to problem solve what she could find to help him. When she couldn’t find anything on the unit, she ran out to her car, removed her trailer hitch, and brought it in for the patient. The patient spent the rest of the night with the trailer hitch in bed with him and was much calmer. Thank you for going the extra mile, Mary!
Written by the American mom of a previous patient:
The second or third day he was in the hospital, he told me about a vivid dream he had. In the dream, his father had given each of his three sons a secret gift, a power, with each gift providing some kind of protection and healing. His gift was a power from metal. If he could hold iron, which he pronounced “E run,” he would be free of pain and the cancer would be gone.
He knew it was a dream but urged me to believe that the power was real and that I needed to find him some metal to touch. There was none in the room, so I told him we could ask his nurse later if there was anything metal he could touch. Then I forgot about it, and he went to sleep.
The next morning when I returned to the hospital, I learned that he had gotten upset with everyone on the unit during the night, but that he was now back in bed and sleeping. I tracked down a nurse to ask about what happened, and she explained, “He was disoriented and there was some custom involved, but he is calm and sleeping now.”
A few days later I learned the rest of the story. Mary, his night nurse, had found him very upset. She convinced him to slow down and tell her what was going on and why he was upset. He told her that he needed to go to “the metal room” immediately. “The metal room,” he would repeat, and that “he would be well there,” and “he needed to go now.” As she continued listening and leaning in, she realized that he needed to hold “e run.”
I cannot guess how long she listened until she finally understood what he meant. She left him with another nurse and went down to her car. She brought up a trailer hitch and put it into his hand. Later he reported, “I saw her praying on her knees. I held the iron. I could sleep.”
What kindness Mary showed that night. What a healer!
Mary Miller, BSN, RN, is a nurse on the Bronson Methodist Hospital Extended Medical Care Unit. She is a recipient of the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. To nominate a Bronson nurse for the award, visit Nominate a nurse for the DAISY Award.
