True Stories of an Intensive Care Nurse

By Janice Tray

For author Janice Tray, nursing has been her passion since age six. Although the job is very demanding mentally, emotionally, and especially physically, she loved it. In True Stories of an Intensive Care Nurse, she shares some of the stories gathered from her twenty-six years of nursing experience, twenty-three of those in the intensive care unit. Now retired, she tells the story of Johnny, a patient dying from Valley Fever, and how he learned the power of forgiveness firsthand. Theres the case of Mr. Z., a man in his seventies, who was taught how to use guided imagery to help him deal with his symptoms.

True Stories of an Intensive Care Nurse narrates true accounts of Trays experiences in and outside the intensive care unitwhere the difference between life and death often rests on quick decisions by nurses and doctorsand events cannot always be explained by science. Tray provides a testament to the wonderful things God can do in your life when you trust him and ask him for help.

Praise for True Stories of an Intensive Care Nurse

As a nurse faces daily challenges to keep her patients alive and recovering, she depends upon interfaces with the almighty for help.
Maria Berbeo, Book Editor, Publisher

The subject matter is of interest, and the author feels deeply about the spiritual nature of every encounter.
George Robinson, Community Leader

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inspiring Voices
• Release date: Jul 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9781462410132

Janice Tray

Janice Tray studied at Pasadena City College, California Hospital School of Nursing, and Santa Monica College where she obtained her RN. She earned her BSN from Excelsior College. Tray worked as a hospital nurse in Los Angeles, California, for twenty-six years, twenty-three of those in intensive care and the emergency room.

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Copyright © 2014 Janice Tray.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

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ISBN: 978-1-4624-1014-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4624-1013-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014912026

Inspiring Voices rev. date: 07/08/2014

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1. Johnny

Chapter 2. Mr. Z And Guided Imagery

Chapter 3. Golden Flames

Chapter 4. Darkness In The Midst Of Light

Chapter 5. Back In The U.s.a. From Brazil

Chapter 6. The Respiratory Therapist

Chapter 7. Mr. Strong

Chapter 8. Mind Over Body

Chapter 9. Mr. Johnson In Bed One

Chapter 10. Direction

Chapter 11. Mr. Smith

Chapter 12. Life After Death

Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

Nursing has been my passion since age six. A doctor took my tonsils out in his office, using an ether mask for anesthesia. When I woke up, I was alone, sitting in a big, overstuffed chair, coughing up blood onto a towel on my lap. I was in a lot of pain. A young woman walked up to me, squatted down to my eye level, and said, You are going to be all right. She said it so convincingly, that I believed her, and stopped crying. I saw compassion in her eyes. "Besides that, you will have to