Suzanne Gilliam is a Surgery Controller in the second floor waiting room near the operating room and open heart recovery unit.
She is relatively new to the unit, and her primary job is to update families on a patient’s status as they come in and out of surgery and go to where they need to go after surgery.
In March, a patient recovering from surgery had to return to the OR emergently. After a second surgery, the patient went to an ICU.
The patient had a 10-year-old child that wasn’t permitted to go into the ICU. Gilliam took care of the child so they could be with the patient during this very critical time.
Gilliam cared for the child for nearly two and half hours, keeping him entertained with television, smartphone and coloring book pages she printed from the internet. She also gave him a snack.
This is one example of Gilliam’s kindness. She also builds relationships with her patients’ families and even cries with them.
