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It was late summer
in
2015 when one of the chemotherapy
nurses from the oncology depart-
ment at Mercy Medical Center
Redding, leaving the hospital at
the end of her shift, discovered a
young girl in the parking lot, half
asleep and lying on the sidewalk in
100-degree weather.
It turned out that the girl had just
come from the hospital emergency
department, where she had been
diagnosed with a urinary tract
infection. She was homeless. She
had no food, no water, and no way
to get her prescription filled. The
nurse immediately went back to
the hospital; got a wheelchair; and
brought the girl to her workplace,
the outpatient cancer clinic.
All for one
Other nurses worked together to
get the girl cooled off. They gave
her food and—more importantly—
water, and had her prescription
filled at Owen’s Pharmacy within
20 minutes.
But of course they didn’t want the
girl to go back out into the city
alone. What was there to do? They
called a social worker, who found
the girl a room at the Good News
Mission. The nurse navigator
got her a taxi to take her to the
mission. It was there that they
discovered that the girl had come
to Redding a year ago with her
boyfriend, who had then left her.
The nurse navigator called the girl’s
mother in Colorado. The mother
immediately sent money for her
daughter to travel home, which she
did the next day.
Because of the oncology nurse,
the entire outpatient cancer clinic
staff, the nurse navigator, the social
worker, and the people at Good
News Mission, a homeless girl who
was found suffering in the hospital’s
parking lot is homeless no more.
Want to make
someone’s day?
You have the power
to make a real im-
pact on the health
and well-being of
the people around
you. We all do.
Look for ways each
day to spread a
little kindness.
HELLO HUMANKINDNESS!
CHARITY
When temperatures
were
soaring,
so
was
compassion
Hello
humankindness!
READ A STORY. SHARE A STORY. Acts of humankindness
can inspire and heal each of us. Visit
dignityhealth.org/stories.19
Dignity Health North State