William DeShazer

Stories and Essays: The P.I.C.U.

While there is a festive feel in the air on Christmas Eve in the pediatric intensive care unit at Rush University Medical Center, there is still patients to care for who cling to life at the hands of nurses and doctors.

One month-old Loretta Brenzek recovers in her bed after having heart surgery in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Rush University Medical Center on Friday December 24, 2010.
  
Resident Nurses, Rupal Rawalja, (from left) Jackie Calhoun, Lindsay Craft, and Erin Goryl talk about the patients at the morning shift change at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Rush University Medical Center on Friday December 24, 2010.
  
Leticia Gil, (left) wipes the sleep from the eyes of her daughter, Brenda, 13, the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Rush University Medical Center on Friday December 24, 2010. Brenda was brought to Rush before Thanksgiving and hospitalized for vasculitis and renal failure.
     
  
Pediatric Resident, Tina Mathai, goes over a patients vitals, medications, and blood work in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Rush University Medical Center on Friday December 24, 2010.
  
Resident Nurse Laurie Kierna, feeds 33 day-old Tyler Wright in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Rush University Medical Center on Friday December 24, 2010.
  
A paper strip monitoring a patient's heart rests at a desk outside of patient rooms in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Rush University Medical Center on Friday December 24, 2010.
     
  
Resident Nurse, Jackie Calhoun, (left) laughs with others as Patient Care Technician, Tasha Taylor, and at Rush University Medical Center on Friday December 24, 2010.
  
Jennifer Evans, (from left) walks with her daughter, Jasmine Evans, 14, and Nancy Torres, and Occupational Theorapest at Rush University Medical Center on Friday December 24, 2010. Jasmine has had over 50 hospital visits and along with scoliosis and developmental delays. "You know what I want for Christmas?" asked Jasmine. "No more surgeries."
   
Seven month-old Beatrice Anne del Rosario, (left) laughs with Resident Nurse Mary Bridget Bowen in General Pediatrics at Rush University Medical Center on Friday December 24, 2010. "It's amazing to form those relationships because you feel like a part of the family," Bowen said.