A nurse’s heavenly voice is being hailed as the reason a hospice patient was able to go home early after his family had assumed the worst.
Nurse Brenda Buurstra has been singing to patients for 17 years, although this is the first time that she ever got “caught” in the act.
Buurstra, who is a nurse at Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan, had been watching a television show with hospice patient Robert Olson when he remarked on how much he liked the song “You Light Up My Life” by Debby Boone.
To his delight, the nurse immediately started singing the tune. Though she admittedly didn’t know a few of the words, she reassured Olson by saying that she would print out the lyrics and sing with him the next day.
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True to her word, Buurstra returned with a page of lyrics and sang a sweet duo with her patient. Olson’s daughter Roberta Lyle recorded the emotional song and posted it to YouTube, praising the nurse for her kindness.
Olson had always been a tough older man, but after he was taken to the hospital for having breathing problems at home, his family did not think he would be able to come home – until Buurstra came along.
Lyle was stunned that Buurstra was able to get her father speaking, let alone singing. She also says that the singing lifted his spirits so much, he recovered enough to be able to go home the following week – and she credits it all to Buurstra.
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“I just hope this woman knows what she’s done for my dad,” Lyle told CBS News. “I just hope Bronson Hospital knows what they have in her.”
Buurstra, on the other hand, says that it’s all just a part of her job helping patients.
“Not just taking care of the illness in a patient; to touch them. To touch their life. To touch their heart. To make that awful hospital stay they’re going through just a little bit better, a little bit brighter,” Buurstra said. “I’m not the only nurse who goes above and beyond at Bronson. This is what we do every day.”
(WATCH the interview below or our international viewers can watch the coverage on the CBS News website) – Photo by Roberta Lyla
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