Hoda Kotb recalls nurse's unforgettable kind gesture during her 3-year-old daughter's hospital stay

While doctors get their due credit every now and then, nurses rarely get appreciated for all that they do. We must remember that nurses form the backbone of the healthcare system. Broadcaster Hoda Kotb recently called attention to this when she expressed her gratitude towards them and shared how a nurse helped her when her 3-year-old daughter, Hope, was in the hospital. Recalling that stressful period of her life, Kotb said the nurse's warm gesture “meant everything” to her, reported TODAY.

“I was just thinking about when Hope was in the hospital for one of those days... It was 3 a.m., and I was just sitting in this chair,” Kotb recounted. “This nurse walked in and—I still remember—put her hand on my back... didn’t even say anything. Just sat there for a minute. A lot of what (nurses) do isn’t just about giving the IV and the needles and the stuff and the tests and all those things. It’s more than that.”

“I remember I was there, and I asked for a bath for (Hope). I wanted to give her a bath, and they could only sponge her, and I said, ‘Please, I’m begging you. I just want a bath here for my child,’ and I remember we got this little plastic thing, and we put it in the shower and put Hope in it. And I remembered like that tiny thing, but it was everything at that time,” Kotb shared.

Kotb is not new to expressing her appreciation for the nurses. On her first day back on the show after her daughter's health scare, she said, “You know what I realized, too, Savannah? When your child is ill, the amount of gratitude you can have for people who helped you out. I’m grateful for the doctors at Weill Cornell who were amazing and the nurses. And I’m grateful to my family, and I’m grateful to friends like you who were there every single day. So, I want to say thank you for that. I love you.”

“I’m over the moon that she’s home,” she said. “And I can’t believe how amazing people are. Like, that’s the thing I learned through all this; the nurses who stood by her all the way, the nurses who checked on her constantly, the doctors who came in, the people who took care of us. And I felt like we were held.”

“Sometimes, you talk about gratitude, and then when you’re pushed to the limit, you’re like, ‘Do I feel it?’” she added. “I feel blessed and grateful: really, really, really grateful. And, also, anyone who’s ever gone through an illness with a child, boy, I thought I understood you, but I didn’t until you’re sitting in that position.”

Kotb’s experience is not isolated. According to NCBI research, “the nurse makes not the only but a unique contribution to care. In the primary care team, she has information about the patient as a 'whole' person and about his or her family on the basis of which she can assess total needs and make appropriate arrangements for these to be met.” After going through the pain of seeing her child sick, Kotb has found gratitude towards those healthcare professionals who are always there to help us.