Reaching out to an old friend

BJC St. Charles County hospitals sends care package to Las Vegas hospital

On the night of October 1, 2017, a gunman opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, leaving 58 people dead and 546 injured.

More than 200 victims were sent to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, the closest trauma center to the concert site.  Former Barnes-Jewish St. Peters and Progress West Hospital (BJSPH and PWH) patient care services director, Kathy Donovan, is the chief operating officer for Sunrise.  It had only been months since Donovan left her team at BJSPH/PWH.

PWH emergency department manager, Kerrie Livers, reached out to Donovan the following morning to make sure she was okay.  Donovan had been at the hospital all night tending to patients.  

"I knew the health care providers were probably just starting to realize and absorb what happened," Livers says.  "I just wanted to help."

Livers and her team put together the care baskets and shipped them to the Sunrise ER. The baskets are full of fellow nurse-approved comfort items for the Sunrise ER team, including:

• Starbucks gift cards
• A greeting card with a special message to a fellow emergency room nurses or physician
• Emergency Nurse Week t-shirts with saying “ER Nurses…Expect the unexpected”
• Bath bombs
• Facial scrubs
• Perfumes and lotions
• Tons of chocolate
• Pringles (a personal favorite of Donovan's)

"We ER nurses are a rare breed," says Amanda Harris, one of many in the emergency department team members who contributed to the basket.  "We like to support each other and to be there for each other in our time of need."

Team members from both Barnes-Jewish St. Peters and Progress West Hospitals contributed to the basket, along with TeamHealth Physicians, Washington University Pediatricians and Rottler Pest Control.

Barnes-Jewish St. Peters and Progress West emergency departments serve the St Charles County communities through 24/7 emergency care.  Progress West Hospital has on-site St. Louis Childrens Hospital physicians to care for pediatric patients coming into the emergency room.  

Dr. Nunez, Amanda Harris, Jeanne Buchholz, Jan Young and Eva Jackson pose with some of the items sent to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas.