Paul Gagnon

Clinical Manager 4G
Start Date: 2005

CIRCLE OF LIFE

One day at work about a year-and-a-half ago stands out in my mind as a reminder of why our work at the Hospital Center is so important, and how no matter what we do we are all working together in the circle of life.

In the morning, I cared for a patient who had to go to the operating room for emergency surgery. Sadly, later that day the patient was declared brain dead. I witnessed the process of the patient's family making the heart-wrenching decision to let go and list their loved one as an organ donor.

That same evening, I admitted a patient who needed a heart transplant. The family was so excited to learn that a heart was available. That heart came from the patient I had taken to the operating room earlier the same day.

In one shift at work, I saw and experienced the full scope of nursing: Taking one family through the death and dying process and then helping another family to restore life and renew hope and vision for a future together. It was a bittersweet day, and one I will always remember as part of the ongoing circle of life and the miracles that occur at the Hospital Center.