“When I told him mom couldn’t be there, he asked if I would snuggle him and I said, ‘Sure will,'” the nurse said.
Everyone needs a little hug and someone to comfort them when they are recovering from a health crisis. A 5-year-old boy from Pennsylvania received exactly what he asked for. Clinton County resident, Slade Thompson woke up in UPMC Susquehanna in Williamsport after tonsil surgery and all he wished was for someone to snuggle him at the moment. Sadly his parents were not allowed inside during that time. But a nurse attending to the little boy could not disappoint him so she gave Slade a warm snuggle which he needed the most at the time, according to WNEP.
Slade, who had this second surgery in a year, has found a new friend in a nurse named Annie Hager who was there to comfort him when his mother couldn't and the little boy patiently waits for her during his hospital visits after that. “He’s been through a lot this last year. We had been in the children’s hospital, so we were kind of nervous just going to a hospital to have it done,” Slade’s mother, Layla Thompson said. On the day of the surgery, Slade’s mother was asked to remain in the waiting room. After the surgery was successfully carried out, Layla was told that her son is awake. But before they can allow the mother to meet her son, the nurses had to check Slade’s vital signs.
Heart-warming moment a nurse snuggled a five-year-old boy recovering from tonsil surgery: Slade Thompson, five, of Renovo, Pennsylvania, woke up from tonsil removal surgery in April crying for his mother. He asked one of his nurses, Annie Hager, if she… https://t.co/db8dfBzCBj pic.twitter.com/arD2JiNdfj
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Annie Hager, who is a registered nurse at UPMC Susquehanna Health in Williamsport, said, “When I told him mom couldn’t be there, he asked if I would snuggle him and I said, ‘Sure will.'” And with Hager’s act of kindness, Layla’s concern for her son disappeared. The nurse set an example of how people in the profession go above and beyond their call of duty.
“You want someone to treat your child the way you would treat them, you know, so whenever I turned the corner and saw them, I looked at my fiance and we both went, ‘Aww!’ We both started getting a little teary-eyed,” Layla revealed. “Anyone that works up there would have done the same thing,” Hager added. This time when Slade and his mother returned to the hospital for another appointment, they made sure to get their favorite nurse some flowers and give her a hug. “I cried, yeah,” Hager said. “It’s humbling.”
“As a nurse, providing care is one thing, but making sure our patients are calm and comfortable matters just as much,” according to a post UPMC Susquehanna’s Facebook page, which was shared during National Nurses Week. “It’s nurses like Annie – who show true compassion – that keep our patients happy. Annie's connection with Slade was so real that he brought her flowers at his follow-up appointment."
References:
https://www.facebook.com/UPMCSusquehanna/photos/a.192807920735186/2739519222730697/?type=3
Cover Image Source: UPMC North Central Pa / Facebook
