Hi, I created this fund to request assistance for a close friend and colleague who unfortunately suffered a serious injury due to a physical assault by a patient at her job in early 2025.

Without providing too many personal details, this injury has caused long-standing physical and psychological disabilities for her. She has required one major surgery so far, with additional surgery expected in the future.

At this point, she has been requiring nearly constant follow-up appointments with her doctors, physical therapists, and other healthcare specialists. It is almost like a full time job to manage her own medical care, on top of her normal responsibilities of taking care of her home and family. All while struggling with the complex legal issues of dealing with a workplace injury, which I won’t detail for obvious reasons. It is truly exhausting.

Respecting her privacy is very important to me. However, seeing her continue to suffer with this ongoing physical and emotional pain is difficult and upsetting for those close to her who care about her well being. My friend is a kind, caring person who deserves to live a happy and healthy life as we all do.

The amount of enjoyment she has missed out on in her personal life during this past year is immeasurable and quite frankly, unfair in my personal opinion. While she should be outside running the local trails in the fresh air as she used to love to do, now there are seemingly endless blood draws, medications, side effects, and complications. All because she was trying to help someone.

Her injuries and inability to work have put an intense strain on her family’s personal finances, including difficulty affording her medical care as well as the student loan payments for the education and career she has worked so hard for.

Nurses and other healthcare workers have dedicated our lives to the important work that we do. We do understand what we “signed up for,” as some people will comment. There is always a risk of incurring work related injuries during the course of providing care to people in our communities. Of course we do our best to avoid this sort of incident, but the truth is that it could easily happen to any of us at any moment.

It’s ultimately up to each of us to support one another in times of need. I know that my friend would certainly do the same for me if our circumstances were reversed.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this small overview of some of the problems my friend has been dealing with for almost a full year. If you are able to donate, any amount would be a huge help to my friend and her family. If you’re not able to donate, a message of support and solidarity would also be appreciated.