From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankar Vedantam.

This is my unsung hero, stories where one person reached out to help another in a time of need.

I do not know the full name of my unsung hero.

She came straight up to me, she looked me in the eyes and she smiled.

So whoever you are, thank you so much.

Today's story comes from Barb Barnes. In 2005, Barb had to undergo major open-heart surgery.

She was a single mom and terrified of what might happen to her young

daughter if things didn't go well. I mean, it was open heart surgery. And at one point,

during the hospitalization, they were going to start tapering my opiate meds. And I remember

being filled with terror.

It just came from my feet all the way to my face,

and I felt like it was just wrong.

And so I declined tapering and kept asking for the opioids.

And at one point, this nurse that had been taking care of me, this wonderful

woman, came in. I'm going to tear up and close the door, ask if she could take my hand. And she said,

I need to talk to you about some things I'm worried about for you, but first I need to tell you something

about myself if that's okay. She told me that she had just been back to work for about a month

from being in rehab for recovery from opioid addiction, and then she said, I don't want this to happen

to you. What she told me was that she had watched me and she said, I don't want this to happen to you.

What she told me was that she had watched me and she believed that I was confusing pain with fear and that I was trying to take the opioids to make the fear go away.

But she said that she would be with me every step of the way with a pain plan,

that if the pain came back, whether she was on duty or not,

...