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the moment they left—even if their departure was not the kind for which their parents had hoped. "I haven't met a nurse who was that dedicated in my 20-plus years of nursing," said coworker Idali Cooper, RN, describing a time Dominguez accompanied a child who died all the way to surgery for organ donation, making sure she got hand prints for the patient's family. The drive to help and heal was something Dominguez shared with her general practitioner father Dr. Carlos Dominguez, her nurse mother Maria, and her veterinarian brother Carlos Emanuel. Even as a child, her father said Dominguez "asked for a doctor kit, and she always played doctor with her dolls." Dominguez spent her teen years studying to become a licensed vocational nurse (LVN) at the Center for Health Professions at El Paso's Bel Air high school, and then completed an undergraduate degree in neuroscience at the University of Texas at Dallas. She wanted to become a neurosurgeon, said her father, but she also felt drawn to work with children and knew doctors spend so little time with their patients. "She said, 'I like kids. I like to see how they do from the time they come in, to the time they go out, and if I'm a doctor, I can't follow their care,'" said Dr. Dominguez, who encouraged his daughter to do what made her happy. So Dominguez applied to a nursing program at University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), and one of Dr. Dominguez's favorite memories is the day she was "very happy, almost crying, that they accepted her." Upon finishing nursing school, Dominguez sought a job in the PICU—a dream position she finally landed at The Hospitals of Providence Memorial Campus in El Paso. She loved her kids, sometimes wearing Mickey Mouse scrubs to win their smiles and ease fear around treatment. She strove for perfection, even designing an incredibly thorough report sheet for herself and for her mother Maria, a certified nursing assistant (CNA) at El Paso's Del Sol Medical Center. "I think nurses all have our own [sheet], but hers was immaculate," said Cooper, whose favorite memory is when Dominguez, normally serious at work, gave her a big, spontaneous hug in response to a much-loved Christmas gift. Dominguez worked in the Providence Memorial PICU for around five years, often seeming somewhere between a nurse and a doctor—and considering becoming a nurse practitioner. "Sometimes, I would hear her giving or receiving a report and asking questions like 'What were the blood culture results? Why isn't the patient on this antibiotic?'" said Cooper. Although Dominguez didn't care for a known positive COVID-19 patient, she began experiencing awful headaches in early April. She was hospitalized on April 7 and tested positive for COVID-19, as did her mother, who had no symptoms. Karla Dominguez passed away on April 19 at age 33. "I miss her very much. It's still hard to see her gone," said Dr. Dominguez, noting how proud he is of everything his daughter accomplished. He wonders why El Paso officials have yet to count her among COVID-19 deaths, more than a month later. And because COVID-19 patients can be asymptomatic and still positive, Dr. Dominguez hopes, moving forward, that nurses have strong protections in every unit. "I think the test is part of the protective equipment," he said. "Because what good is it if you are not tested and you are positive?" Cooper said there's an empty space in the PICU family, having lost a true team player, who would go the extra mile to help everyone. "She was the one who would catch things that were missing by the doctors. She was on top of her game," said Cooper. "It really is a big loss for humanity and for the health system." —Kari Jones Helen Gbodi, RN for helen gbodi, nursing was not something confined to her 12 hour-shifts at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. Nursing was something Gbodi did before work, after work, at church, in her neighborhood and even as she was walking into the Department of Motor Vehicles office. "She saw this man on the sidewalk and [she] started talking to him, asking 'Are you okay?' The man said 'I am not okay, I am kind of dizzy, I can't walk,'" said Charles Ositelu, Gbodi's husband. "We went to that person's house the same day. She looked at his medication. She started to make arrangements for him, to monitor his diet. He was close to 80, living alone. We would go to his house about two to three times a week." A P R I L | M AY | J U N E 2 0 2 0 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 39 Jeff Baumbach, RN Paul Camagay, RN Karla Dominguez, RN