Sunday, March 29, 2009

And he lives on

A few weeks ago the hospital I worked for announced that they were looking for stories for the WHA "Employee pride" program. The stories should be what brought you to healthcare. Of course I wrote about Alex, since he has been what has directed every day in the past three years of my life and I won! The family and I get to go on a trip to the Wisconsin Dells for a couple days of waterpark fun in May!

I thought I'd share the story with you:

In 2006 my son was born with a devastating set of heart defects. We spent the entire 7 weeks of his life in the hospital fighting for every breath he took.

Shortly after his death I was given the honor of attending the passing of another baby we had known. That day I realized that although I could never get back what was lost the day I held my son for the last time, I could carry his spirit on with my hard earned knowledge and understanding. As I held this child’s tiny body in my arms and looked into the eyes of his mother I felt the deep connection we now shared. Our stories were forever altered and had taken the same fork in the road.

I left that day and knew that through this experience my son was asking me to carry forward the compassion and empathy that few people can truly have. I couldn’t spare my children the pain of learning their brother had died, and I couldn’t alter God’s decision to take my child, or the family members of others home. But I could take the hand of a stranger, look into their eyes and in a silent moment share their pain and give them the hope that it is possible to survive and move forward.

And so I went into healthcare. I currently work in admitting and am in school for my Medical Assisting degree. Every day I bring a little bit of my son with me. A child who lived until we were strong enough to let him go and gave more than he ever took with him. A child who taught me that some people are born with special hearts, the rest of us have to work at it.

I've also been putting some ideas together in continuing to spread Alex's message and of course this blog will be the hub of that effort.

A few months ago we were fortunate enough to be in a position to preform our families largest Random act of kindness to date. We purchased a handheld Nintendo game system and 2 games for a little boy in the store we were shopping in. It was so much fun to see him walk out with the games with his little face lit up like Christmas morning!

More to come!