Celebrating Life-Saving Care
One Thanksgiving weekend, young parents Kurt and Erin Cossé found themselves driving to the Emergency Department at Baptist Health. Kurt had been having unbearable headaches, and Erin eventually found a way to persuade Kurt to leave the house despite his insistence that he not “ruin anybody’s Thanksgiving.”
The Cosses learned that Kurt was having a brain aneurism and needed immediate surgery. Kurt shared that about ninety percent of people with a brain aneurism either end up dying or in a vegetative state. This news to the couple with three kids and no relatives in town was more than overwhelming.
The Cosses spent the next three weeks in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit. Moments were touch-and-go for a while, and at times when he was heavily medicated, Kurt thought he was in a POW camp. Every step of the way during the potentially life-threatening situation, the family was able to rely on the team of Baptist Health doctors and nurses to keep them uplifted.
“They were there every minute we could ever ask to help support and get us through it,” Kurt said. “Their true professionalism and the way they dealt with us was truly inspiring.”
Erin’s sentiments echoed Kurt’s. “I had my moments of breaking down and moments of not being sure of what was going to happen but they kept everything so positive,” she said. “I hope I never have to do something like that again but a part of me is changed forever and I am so grateful for that.”
At the one-year anniversary of Kurt’s aneurism, the Cosses sought to celebrate and do something to show their gratitude to the SICU unit. They found Baptist Health Foundation’s Grateful Patient Program, deciding that the program that allows patients to show their appreciation to the people who take good care of them this was the best way to celebrate the unit and his healing.
Maybe you’d like to give because, like the Cosse family, you are grateful to be alive. Maybe you’d like to give because you, too, have had a child in the NICU and can’t imagine being separated from your baby at a critical time. Maybe you’d like to give because you know what it is like to be a struggling student trying to further your education. Regardless of your reason for giving, know that each dollar we receive supports amazing care and improving the lives of so many people.
Watch the Cosses testimony below.