Girl, 9, reunites with nurses after her touching letter
Adriana Boucher met the nurses from West Boca Medical Center under unfortunate circumstances a few months ago, but Wednesday, the 9-year-old from Boca Raton and her nurses were all smiles after a touching letter reunited them.
When Adriana developed hives on her skin and complained of abdominal and throat pain about two months ago, her parents knew they had to get her to a hospital.
In the middle of the night, Ed and Thais Boucher got in the car and drove to West Boca Medical Center, where their daughter dealt with two days’ worth of treatment and anxious moments.
“When they said they weren’t going to release her, I was really worried because nobody knew what was going on,” Ed Boucher said.
Doctors initially thought that Adriana had suffered an allergic reaction, but later determined she was suffering from a viral illness. By Wednesday, she was healthy enough to head home. And in the days of recovering, she came up with the idea of a thank-you letter to her nurses.
“She received a thank-you letter from the hospital, and that’s when she decided, by herself, to write a thankyou letter back,” said Thais Boucher. “She said ‘Mommy put (this letter) in the mail,’ and I thought it was going to be a letter to Santa Claus.”
“When this letter came through I sent it off to all the people in the letter, so they had their own copy,” said Director of Pediatric Services Susan Feldman.
Included in the note were stick-figure drawings of hospital staff members Cristina Agustin, Nicole Lamantia, Tara Harris, Tamara Souza, Jennifer Sebar and Brenda Robinson. Adriana also thanked the staff for giving her art supplies and a doll, items that were donated to the hospital.
“I have her letter hanging up in my office, because every day it puts a smile on my face,” said Meredith Haney, the clinical nurse manager in Pediatric Services at West Boca Medical. “It is one of the nicest things I’ve read in a while.”
Perhaps the best part of Adriana’s impromptu thankyou letter is that the reasoning behind it was so simplistic and honest that it is best described by a 9-year-old.
“I just wanted to thank them,” Adriana said.