A 74-year-old woman diagnosed with terminal lung cancer received help in fulfilling her last wish from her nurses at a medical center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Jeannie Guffey expressed her desire to be baptized while she was confined to a bed in Huntsville Hospital’s ICU, and before she went home under hospice care, three women who cared for her made that wish a reality, the hospital said in a blog post Wednesday.
ICU nurses Erin Powers, Kaitlin Swaim, and Emily Owens knew Guffey’s family also wanted to see her baptized but understood how difficult it might be due to the location and medical equipment.
However, the nurses were determined and came up with a plan. They bought a kiddie pool from Walgreens and made a hose from ventilator tubing to fill it with warm water from the hospital room’s sink. When moving the patient, staff members used the ceiling lift in her room to lower Guffey into the water so her son, Jody, could baptize her while the rest of her loved ones watched.
Daughter-in-law Carol Guffey recalled, “It was just a really sweet, emotional moment. The nurses went above and beyond to make this happen at the 11th hour when we were running out of options.”
The hospital shared photos of the nurses preparing for the moment and a smiling Guffey surrounded by her family:
“Jeannie passed away peacefully a few days later, but her family says the memory — and the extraordinary compassion of her nurses — will stay with them forever,” the post read.
Social media users shared their thoughts on the touching moment, one person writing, “This is the most compassionate thing a nurse could ever do for someone. Those ladies have beautiful souls.”
“This reminds me of story in the Bible where a paralyzed man’s friends lowered him through the roof of a home where Jesus was so he could be healed by Jesus. These friends/staff brought this woman closer to Jesus. And now she’s with him for eternity! Amen!” another user commented.
Jesus heals a paralytic and forgives his sins (Luke 5: 17 – 26). Chromolithograph based on a drawing by Karl Gottlob Schönherr (German painter, 1824 – 1906), published ca. 1898
According to Got Questions, baptism is the outward testimony of a person whose heart has been changed by God and it illustrates the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Carol Guffey called the moment “a total God thing,” adding, “And those nurses will be special to us forever.”
