Written and Submitted by: Dawn DeGroat, LPN | LaFargeville School Based Health Center
To celebrate Nurses Week, Carthage Area Hospital asked a few of their nurses to share their inspiring stories. Here’s one from Dawn DeGroat, LPN:
“When I was a teenager my Mother went to school and became a LPN. I remember her studying at the table for endless hours. I was so proud of her! My Grandmother lived with us in my late teenage years and even after all us kids moved out she continued to live with my Mom & Dad. My Grandmother was rather sick in her later years and was in and out of Carthage ER and hospital for years with CHF. She was finally diagnosed with end stage Kidney disease and had to have dialysis 3x/week. My Mother was working as a new LPN and wasn’t able to go to every Dr.’s appointment my sick Grandmother had to go to. I was a stay at home Mom with 2 young children so I decided to step up and take her to appointments with Dr. Ashraf and for her dialysis. This went on for years and her health started to deteriorate over time. There where several visits to Carthage ER and multiple over night or weekly stays.
I became interested in nursing when my Mother was going to school and with my sick Grandmother that really drove home the idea of becoming a LPN.When my youngest Daughter was getting on the bus for her 1st day of Kindergarten I was headed to my 1st day of Nursing school. During my 1st semester my Grandmother’s health took a turn for the worse. I would get done with classes and go visit or help my Mother care for her. She became very sick and was admitted to SMC ICU for a week, where she was intubated and told that her body was going into multiple organ failure and it “was only a matter of time”. She could stay intubated with not much communication with us. Or they suggested being extubated and “let nature take its course”. My Grandmother was able to decide that she did not want to continue living like this.
I continued to go to classes and at this point we were doing clinical rotations at the SMC keep home. I would go see her when I was done with classes. The day that they decided to extubate my grandmother I went to clinical and informed my instructor what was going on with her. I tried as hard as I could to focus, but it was hard knowing what was to come that evening. That night after class me, my Mother and Grandmother all spent the night in her ICU room. Grandma told me no matter what to continue with my education and she was proud of me. She was extubated and the nurses where great, they came in and suctioned her and gave her Morphine for pain. We woke up the next morning and she was still hanging on, the staff told me it may be a few hours and told me I would be fine to go do my clinical next door. They would call the 8th floor if she got bad.
I went to clinical, barely able to focus. I remember being paged on the 8th floor for a phone call and was told “it was time”. I left my clinical and went to Grandmothers bedside where Mother and I held her hand until she took her last breath. The last thing my Grandmother told me was how proud of me she was and that I will be a great Nurse.
My Grandmother passed away 9 years ago, I have prided myself in being the best nurse I can.”