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As patients,

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we usually remember
the names of our doctors,

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but often we forget
the names of our nurses.

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I remember one.

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I had breast cancer a few years ago,

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and somehow I managed
to get through the surgeries

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and the beginning
of the treatment just fine.

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I could hide what was going on.

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Everybody didn't really have to know.

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I could walk my daughter to school,

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I could go out to dinner with my husband;

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I could fool people.

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But then my chemo was scheduled to begin,

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and that terrified me

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because I knew that I was going to lose
every single hair on my body

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because of the kind of chemo
that I was going to have.

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I wasn't going to be able
to pretend anymore

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as though everything was normal.

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I was scared.

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I knew what it felt like to have
everybody treating me with kid gloves,

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and I just wanted to feel normal.

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I had a port installed in my chest.

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I went to my first day of chemotherapy,

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and I was an emotional wreck.

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My nurse Joanne walked in the door,

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and every bone in my body was telling
me to get up out of that chair

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and take for the hills.

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But Joanne looked at me and talked
to me like we were old friends.

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And then she asked me,

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"Where'd you get your highlights done?"

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(Laughter)

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And I was like,

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are you kidding me?

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You're going to talk to me about my hair
when I'm on the verge of losing it?

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I was kind of angry,

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and I said, "Really? Hair?"

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And with a shrug
of her shoulders she said,

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"It's gonna grow back."

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And in that moment she said
the one thing I had overlooked,

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and that was that at some point,

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my life would get back to normal.

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She really believed that.

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And so I believed it, too.

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Now, worrying about losing your hair
when you're fighting cancer

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may seem silly at first,

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but it's not just that you're worried
about how you're going to look.

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It's that you're worried that everybody's
going to treat you so carefully.

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Joanne made me feel normal
for first time in six months.

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We talked about her boyfriends,

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we talked about looking
for apartments in New York City,

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and we talked about my reaction
to the chemotherapy --

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all kind of mixed in together.

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I always wondered,

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how did she so instinctively
know just how to talk to me?

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Joanne Staha,

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and my admiration for her,

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marked the beginning of my journey
into the world of nurses.

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A few years later,

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I was asked to do a project

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that would celebrate the work
that nurses do.

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I started with Joanne,

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and I met over 100 nurses
across the country.

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I spent five years interviewing,
photographing and filming nurses

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for a book and a documentary film.

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With my team,

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we mapped a trip across America
that would take us to places

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dealing with some of the biggest
public health issues facing our nation --

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aging, war, poverty, prisons.

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And then we went places

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where we would find the largest
concentration of patients

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dealing with those issues.

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Then we asked hospitals and facilities
to nominate nurses

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who would best represent them.

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One of the first nurses I met
was Bridget Kumbella.

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Bridget was born in Cameroon,

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the oldest of four children.

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Her father was at work when he
had fallen from the fourth floor

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and really hurt his back.

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He talked a lot about what it was like
to be flat on your back

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and not get the kind
of care that you need.

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That propelled Bridget to go
into the profession of nursing.

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Now, as a nurse in the Bronx,

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she has a really diverse group
of patients that she cares for,

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from all walks of life,

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and from all different religions.

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She's devoted her career
to understanding the impact

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of our cultural differences
when it comes to our health.

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She spoke of a patient --

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a Native American patient that she had --

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that wanted to bring a bunch
of feathers into the ICU.

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That's how he found spiritual comfort.

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She spoke of advocating for him,

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and said that patients come
from all different religions

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and use all different kinds
of objects for comfort;

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whether it's a holy rosary
or a symbolic feather,

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it all needs to be supported.

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This is Jason Short.

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Jason is a home health nurse
in the Appalachian mountains,

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and his dad had a gas station
and a repair shop when he was growing up.

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So he worked on cars in the community
that he now serves as a nurse.

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When he was in college,

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it was just not macho at all
to become a nurse,

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so he avoided it for years.

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He drove trucks for a little while,

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but his life path was always
pulling him back to nursing.

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As a nurse in the Appalachian mountains,

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Jason goes places that an ambulance
can't even get to.

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In this photograph,

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he's standing in what used to be a road.

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Top of the mountain mining
flooded that road,

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and now the only way
for Jason to get to the patient

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living in that house
with black lung disease

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is to drive his SUV against
the current up that creek.

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The day I was with him,

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we ripped the front fender off the car.

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The next morning he got up,

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put the car on the lift,

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fixed the fender,

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and then headed out
to meet his next patient.

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I witnessed Jason
caring for this gentleman

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with such enormous compassion,

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and I was struck again by how intimate
the work of nursing really is.

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When I met Brian McMillion,

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he was raw.

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He had just come back from a deployment,

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and he hadn't really settled back in
to life in San Diego yet.

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He talked about his experience
of being a nurse in Germany,

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and taking care of the soldiers
coming right off the battlefield.

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Very often, he would be the first
person they would see

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when they opened
their eyes in the hospital.

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And they would look at him
as they were lying there,

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missing limbs,

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and the first thing they would say is,
"When can I go back?

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I left my brothers out there."

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And Brian would have to say,

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"You're not going anywhere.

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You've already given enough, brother."

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Brian is both a nurse and a soldier
who's seen combat.

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So that puts him in a unique position

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to be able to relate to and help heal
the veterans in his care.

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This is Sister Stephen,

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and she runs a nursing home
in Wisconsin called Villa Loretto.

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The entire circle of life
can be found under her roof.

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She grew up wishing they lived on a farm,

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so given the opportunity
to adopt local farm animals,

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she enthusiastically brings them in.

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And in the springtime,

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those animals have babies.

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Sister Stephen uses those baby
ducks, goats and lambs

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as animal therapy for the residents
at Villa Loretto

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who sometimes can't
remember their own name,

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but they do rejoice
in the holding of a baby lamb.

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The day I was with Sister Stephen,

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I needed to take her away
from Villa Loretto

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to film part of her story.

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And before we left,

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she went into the room of a dying patient.

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She leaned over and she said,

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"I have to go away for the day,

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but if Jesus calls you,

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you go.

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You go straight home to Jesus."

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I was standing there and thinking

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it was the first time in my life

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I witnessed that you could show
someone you love them completely

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by letting go.

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We don't have to hold on so tightly.

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I saw more life rolled up
at Villa Loretto

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than I have ever seen at any other time
at any other place in my life.

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We live in a complicated time
when it comes to our health care.

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It's easy to lose sight of the need
for quality of life,

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not just quantity of life.

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As new life-saving
technologies are created,

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we're going to have really
complicated decisions to make.

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These technologies often save lives,

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but they can also prolong pain
and the dying process.

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How in the world are we supposed
to navigate these waters?

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We're going to need
all the help we can get.

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Nurses have a really unique
relationship with us

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because of the time spent at bedside.

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During that time,

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a kind of emotional intimacy develops.

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This past summer,

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on August ninth,

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my father died of a heart attack.

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My mother was devasted,

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and she couldn't imagine
her world without him in it.

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Four days later she fell,

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she broke her hip,

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she needed surgery,

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and she found herself
fighting for her own life.

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Once again I found myself
on the receiving end

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of the care of nurses --

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this time for my mom.

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My brother and my sister and I
stayed by her side

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for the next three days in the ICU.

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And as we tried to make
the right decisions,

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and follow my mother's wishes,

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we found that we were depending
upon the guidance of nurses.

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And once again,

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they didn't let us down.

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They had an amazing insight
in terms of how to care for my mom

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in the last four days of her life.

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They brought her comfort
and relief from pain.

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They knew to encourage my sister and [I]
to put a pretty nightgown on my mom,

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long after it mattered to her,

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00:10:03,883 --> 00:10:05,915
but it sure meant a lot to us.

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00:10:07,247 --> 00:10:12,908
And they knew to come and wake me up
just in time for my mom's last breath.

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Then they knew how long
to leave me in the room

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with my mother after she died.

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I have no idea how they know these things,

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but I do know that I am eternally grateful

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that they've guided me once again.

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Thank you so very much.

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(Applause)