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LEHI — IASIS Healthcare has sent 42 nurses from several of their Utah locations down to Texas to help with hurricane relief.
Nurse Jennie Robinson's home base is a nurses' station at Mountain Point Center in Lehi. However, her heart feels most at home when she's helping others. So, when her employer asked for volunteers to help out in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, she was the first to volunteer.
"I just wanted to go and be a part of something that is much bigger than me," Robinson said.
The 10 days working at a hospital outside of Houston didn't faze her, but something else did. And she hasn't been able to forget it.
"The only thing (this woman) wanted was to replace her son's wheelchair," Robinson said, as she reflected on a conversation she had with another hospital worker she met while in Texas. "She didn't care about her car and she didn't care about her house."
This new friend of Robinson's was in need of a motorized wheelchair for her son, who is completely wheelchair-bound. Flood waters ruined his original chair and he's been confined to a basic wheelchair ever since.
"(The regular chair) is already impacting his muscles and breaking his skin down," Robinson said as the thumbed through pictures of the young man on her cellphone.
Though Robinson's rescue nurse mission is complete, she has a new mission now.
"Get ready, because I'm going to raise this money for this kid so this handsome young man can do what he needs to do," she said.
Robinson is hoping to raise $3,000, which is roughly the cost insurance will not cover for a new wheelchair.
"I will figure out how to get him the wheelchair," Robinson said. "I will figure it out because I gave (this woman) my word."
It's a promise from one mother to another, and a promise from a nurse who just can't stop helping.
Robinson is hoping to set up an account to raise money for the wheelchair soon.
