A photo of a nurse, Annie Hager, snuggling 5-year-old Slade Thompson in his hospital bed makes for a beautiful picture of compassion. And Layla Thompson, Slade's mom, cried tears of joy when she walked in on the touching scene.
When doctors told Layla Thompson her 5-year-old son needed to have his tonsils removed, it made for the boy's second surgery that year.
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"He's been through a lot this last year," the Pennsylvania mom explained.
Layla hated seeing her young son, Slade, go through so much. But God already had a special angel in place to help!
Layla sat anxiously in the patient waiting room during Slade's surgery. Though she couldn't wait to see her son, nurses first needed to check Slade's vitals before allowing family members into his recovery room.
But as the 5-year-old awoke from the anesthesia, he desperately craved some kind of comfort.
And this is what led to Layla Thompson's powerful photo of a nurse snuggling her son.
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"When I told him mom couldn't be there, he asked if I would snuggle him and I said, 'sure will,'" said Annie Hager, a registered nurse at UPMC Susquehanna Health in Williamsport.
When Layla entered her son's hospital room and spotted the touching scene, she instantly burst into tears of joy. Annie Hager's act of kindness meant so much to the worried mom.
"You want someone to treat your child the way you would treat them, you know, so whenever I turned the corner and saw them, I looked at my fiance and. . . we both started getting a little teary-eyed," she recalled.
When this tender moment made it online, the photo of a nurse comforting the young boy quickly went viral.
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This beautiful moment probably wouldn't be possible during the times of COVID-19. But thankfully, Slade's surgery took place well before the coronavirus pandemic. And the sweet interaction is a powerful reminder of the incredible work nurses do every day!
h/t: Faith It
Featured Image: Facebook/UPMC Susquehanna
Mel is the senior writer for GodUpdates, finding, writing and sharing Christian, uplifting, and health-related stories from around the world. Mel has a passion for writing and graduated with a degree in English from Randolph-Macon College in Virginia. When she’s not researching and writing stories, Mel is very active in her church. You can usually find Mel playing board games with her husband and two young girls, giving someone a hug, or hunting down a good cup of coffee!