Where I Stand — Columnist Mike O’Callaghan: Beauty shines in the people who care for us

Friday, Dec. 19, 2003 | 4:41 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

WEEKEND EDITION Dec. 20 - 21, 2003

Nurses have played an important role in my life since undergoing some rather serious surgery at a field hospital unit in early 1953. That was only the beginning of several hospital experiences for me during the next 50 years. All of them were made more comfortable and healing because of nurses. Doctors make it possible to live. Nurses make you want to live.

Two nurses, Patricia Van Betten of Blue Diamond and her colleague Melisa Moriarty of San Diego, have published a heart-warming book, "Nursing Illuminations: A Book of Days," which is great reading for any person.

Nurse Suzanne Cushman Beyea, in a note for readers, writes,"Each morning I would read a page about a nurse to my husband, my adult children or nurse colleagues. Those who listened were fascinated to hear about how nurses promoted health before there were modern hospitals or how nurses served in long-forgotten wars to provide soldiers with the best of health care. There were stories of nurses working toward improving the work environment or educational process -- always working to improve the profession and the health of those for whom nurses provided care."

A good example of the 366 nurses' biographies and a touch of their lives are the pages about Nevada's own Kathy Lynn Batterman, who died in a helicopter crash in bad weather after taking a patient to a Las Vegas hospital in 1999. Included in her biography are the following quotes:

"I don't think that there's that many people in the world that can say that they absolutely love their jobs to the point where they'd be willing to give their life for it, and I am.... Every time I come back from a flight and I know I'm going back out again, it's a chance to save another life.... You know the stress is there but the reward is the greatest feeling in the world." (1992)

"I try to remember the Golden Rule and treat others as I would like to be treated or have my family members treated.... I feel I make a difference in my patients' lives from the moment I meet them.... I try to be all that I can be for my patients. I have the best job in the world." (1997)

Included in the daily readings is the work and words of nurse Catherine Benincasa. St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson has a campus named after her. She became known as St. Catherine of Siena after dedicating her life to nursing as a way to please God. About her life, the book includes the story of Catherine caring for a woman with advanced leprosy. "Unaffected by the verbal abuse and insults that would greet her when she approached, Catherine reassured the woman, 'I shall hasten to do anything that you need of me.' She cared for the woman through death and burial after which her own infected hands healed."

It's a warm book worthy of being given as a Christmas present. I know Barnes & Noble on South Maryland Parkway has copies because one has been mailed to a niece who is a nurse. It is also offered as a Christmas special online, at barnesandnoble.com.

Allow me to add one of my own recollections of a nurse. Lt. Olsen -- I never did know her first name -- took care of me on a hospital train between M*A*S*H and the hospital near Seoul. Later, she cared for me at Letterman Army Hospital.

She was a plain-looking girl from a ranch in Montana -- plain looking until you watched her move among the wounded, smooth out the wrinkles in your bedsheets, bathe the body of a buddy who just wasn't going to make it or took you on your first outing in a wheelchair. She was beautiful to all of us who received her care.