Well, hello, my friends, and welcome to the Live Inspired Podcast Monday morning moments with John O'Leary.

We record these so you and I can begin our weeks and on on fire with a burst of

inspiration to help us kick off this episode, a quote from my friend Judy Bloom. Judy wrote this.

Our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch. I love that quote. Although healthcare practitioners are often cautioned to

avoid becoming emotionally invested in a critically ill patient's outcome. The reality on the ground is

it is impossible not to become engrossed. They spend significant time with the patient. They get to know them intimately,

and they often even become friends with the family members of the patients. Such was the case

during the five months that I spent in the hospital after the fire. Each day, these were the

individuals who drew my blood, they cleaned my lines, they changed my

bandages. These were the leaders who kept me progressing physically and elevated emotionally,

often doing them at the exact same time. In one instance, and there were many to report back on,

but in this one instance, the hospital lost all of the power one evening.

With my respirator now silent and still, a nurse dashed into my room, she reassured me it was all right,

and then she began hand-bagging air into my lungs, until the power came back on in the unit.

These nurses were the servants who never missed a single shift, whether it was a holiday, whether it was a weekend, whether it was a night.

They were there for me and they were there for every other patient on the floor. My family and I

remained in contact with many of these nurses,

even after being released. We'd come back to the floor to visit our old friends. We exchanged

birthday calls and Christmas cards. We had Thanksgiving dinner with one of them for more than a

decade after and invited as many as we could track down to my wedding 16 years after being discharged

from their care. And yet, one of the most meaningful gifts these nurses provided occurred super

recently. While beginning day 14 of filming on fire, I walked into a hospital floor that was being converted to mere the burn center from 1987 and walking into the room where they would film the scenes with me as a child in a hospital bed.

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