Angels @ My Bedside

By Sharon Deis, R.N.

This book tells true stories about real angel events that take place at an inner-city teaching hospital. Many nurses and doctors witnessed these amazing events, which happened at the bedsides of critically ill patients in the surgical intensive care unit. Three types of angel visits were experienced: (1) visits to comfort and bring indescribable peace, (2) visits to miraculously heal, and (3) visits to escort the patient's soul to heaven.

The purpose of the book is to share stories that will inspire hope and encourage faith. Angels are alive and living with us today. Hoping this book also inspires other nurses to come forward and share their experiences of other wonderful angel events. These are only a few of the stories as told by a nurse who was there to experience the Angels @ My Bedside.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 23, 2024
• ISBN: 9798889603474

Book preview

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Angels @ My Bedside

Sharon Deis, R.N.

Copyright © 2023 Sharon Deis, R.N.

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2023

ISBN 979-8-88960-318-4 (pbk)

ISBN 979-8-89157-425-0 (hc)

ISBN 979-8-88960-347-4 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

About the Author

Foreword

The world needs to hear about these true stories. It's time the veil is lifted for people to learn about what goes on in intensive care units everywhere. There are angels among us, interacting every day. The true stories Sharon writes about are real. I have been present to witness many angels in my practice as an ICU nurse myself. It has been a privilege to be part of angel interactions for sure. It's my hope this book provides people with comfort to know God exists and his angels are watching over us.

Val Besco, R.N.

Preface

I hope you enjoy reading the stories from my bedsides as much as I did writing them and reminiscing with my nursing friends about them. There were so many stories it was hard to choose which ones to write about. I came to a revelation after I had decided on which stories to use that angel visits came in three different categories: (1) coming to support and comfort, (2) coming to heal, and (3) coming to escort people to heaven. Prior to writing the outline, the types of visits didn't occur to me. The book provides you with some of each.

I was inspired to write this book after a dream I had. In my dream, I was directed by an angel to write the book. The angel was specific and said, "You will call the book Angels at My Bedside." It was a very vivid dream, and so here I am, writing the book in hopes someone out there reads it, finds comfort, finds faith, and finds God, who is very much alive and well with us here today and every day. In order to preserve patient privacy, the physicians and patient names have been changed; however, their stories are real.

Prologue

At thirteen years old, Sharon was a tall, thin girl dressed in her new frilly pastel confirmation dress making her way up the center aisle to the alter in the front of the church. She approached the man dressed in the long red gown with the matching tall miter. A huge gold cross hung from around the archbishop's neck, sparkling from the sun's light, glowing through the stained glass window. With a sudden strike to Sharon's face, a strong, loud voice echoed through the church, "Sharon, I baptize you in the Holy Spirit." Sharon responded with a quiet Amen and headed for the side aisle, convinced she just received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Sharon fully expected to return to the pew, kneel down, and begin to pray in tongues. Only English came out. It would not be the first disappointment this little girl would have from her church; however, she never lost her faith and only wondered what gift she was given. Years later, Sharon would come to understand she did indeed receive a gift from the Holy Spirit that day. It wasn't the gift of tongues as she expected. Sharon was so faith filled and passionate that God had different plans for her and provided a different gift.

Chapter 1

The Gift

Sharon was raised in the city, attended the local community college, and became a registered nurse as she always dreamed of doing. She was working in a surgical intensive care unit (SICU) in a large urban teaching hospital. The hospital is located behind the Dayton Art Institute, right in the heart of an inner-city neighborhood where Sharon grew up. It's the neighborhood where Sharon had to steal her own bike back not once but twice in the same summer. Sharon loved her job. She worked three twelve-hour night shifts a week but usually pulled an extra shift or two every paycheck. Most of the staff felt driven to help cover those empty shifts left by the nursing shortage in the 1980's. After-all, there was a drug war going on in the streets back then, and someone had to take care of these critically ill patients shot or stabbed usually for drugs, money, or love.

Sharon's passion drove her to work, and she was grateful to have what it takes to work in this theater—not everyone can. She loved the underlying stories that went with the patients and their families. There was always much more to the story, and Sharon was good at getting it out of them. She cared deeply about her patients and viewed this getting it off your chest therapy as helping them to heal inside and out. Sharon was the youngest nurse in the unit, and most of the staff had been around for years with many stories to tell. There was more than a hundred years of nursing experience among the five women on duty, which did not include the measly five years Sharon had been practicing. This point in time was when she discovers a deeper dimension in her nursing care. These next couple of nights on duty would prove to be the promise of her confirmation gift from many years ago.

Sharon sat quietly in the dark at her bedside of room 3209, holding the restrained hand of Mr. Richardson. He was so sick. He had been minding his own business carrying the groceries in when bullets rang out from across the way and found themselves embedded in his stomach. He managed to crawl to the front steps, through the groceries he just spent the last two hours shopping for. The groceries were strewn all over the sidewalk, as reported by the firemen who actually wrote that in their report from the scene. Sharon often enjoyed reading the squad's report from the scene. Both of her brothers were firemen, and she knew many of the characters writing these stories. Mr. Richardson somehow got the attention of his wife, who called 911 and ran to his side.

Mrs. Richardson was out in the waiting room right now and hadn't left the hospital since the day Clyde Richardson got here, three days ago. Mrs. Richardson told me last night, when I tried to encourage her to go home for a good night's rest, she wasn't leaving the hospital until Clyde was ready to come home. That is my whole life lying in that bed. He ain't been nothing but good to me for fifty-eight years. Sharon just couldn't imagine what she was going through too.

Sharon just finished her initial assessment and medicated Mr. Richardson with a healthy dose of morphine for his pain. Abdominal injuries were extremely painful, especially when the bowel contents had been introduced to the body's cavity. A gunshot wound to the abdomen caused tremendous damage to the bowel as the bullet ricocheted around the pelvis. Mr. Richardson was critically ill and on a ventilator, which was his life-support machine, breathing for him for now. His arms