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03.31.14
Courtesy of CeraVe
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Then, when she was old enough to drive, Danz became responsible for taking Yiayia to and from her doctor’s appointments and hospital visits.
Inspired by all she learned about her grandmother’s journey, Danz decided to enter nursing school after graduating high school—a decision that made her grandmother burst with pride.
“She told me when I graduated nurse practitioner school that it was one of the greatest things she witnessed in all 89 years of her life,” said Danz. “She knew I’d go far and do well.”
Courtesy of Emily Danz
And she has. Nurse Danz has used her childhood experiences as an onlooker to her grandmother’s care as a springboard into caring for others. The very first patient she cared for after graduating nursing school in 2014 was suffering from an active tuberculosis infection. Although tuberculosis is curable and preventable, it’s also highly contagious and transmittable by air. It takes the inhalation of only a few of these germs to become infected.
“I remember being petrified to walk into that room,” said Danz.
Fortunately, an experienced nurse mentor gave her a pep talk that she will never forget—in fact, she says, it shaped the entire trajectory of her career.
“[She told] me not to be afraid and that caring for a tuberculosis patient is like caring for any other patient, but just with a special mask and gown. From that day on, I realized that there was no reason to ever be afraid or scared of a patient, and I actually took care of that patient every time I worked for the entirety of their stay — which was over three months.”
Emily | Heroes Behind the Masks presented by CeraVe www.youtube.com
Years later when she found herself working in a hospital during a global pandemic, Nurse Danz channeled that early experience to get her through the fear of caring for patients infected with COVID-19.
“When I was assigned [my first] COVID patient, it was like my very first day of nursing all over again … my mind quickly traveled to the pep talk I was given and reminded me of the oath I took to care for patients no matter the situation,” said Danz. “I continue to carry this empathy with me every day for every single patient I care for—it is something instilled in me.”
Danz, who has also become an instructor to nursing students in their last year of nursing school, recognizes the importance of seeing every patient as an individual and not just a number. She teaches these students bedside clinical skills and medication administration, focusing clearly on arming them with the confidence to interact with patients comfortably, no matter the situation.
Courtesy of CeraVe
“From day one, I learned not to be afraid and it has helped me tremendously throughout my career. In every single class, I make sure to tell my students stories, events and real-life scenarios I’ve been through to prepare and engage them. It is imperative that the new nurses coming into the field are confident and empathetic. When you’re afraid, patients sense it and it affects their healing,” said Danz.
The goal of CeraVe’s Heroes Behind the Masks Chapter 2: A Walk In Our Shoes campaign is to highlight exceptional nurses like Nurse Danz and recognize the profound impact they have on their patients and communities. Follow along this week for more stories and to learn about CeraVe’s ongoing commitment to the nurse community here.
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Michelle Santizo is a street medicine nurse working in Los Angeles, California. For her, the field of street medicine requires providing lifesaving health services in unpredictable and sometimes uncomfortable environments, but is where she is most passionate about her work.
Nurse Santizo credits her parents for teaching her resilience, a necessary trait when providing care in places like tents, under bridges, in alleys, vehicles, at libraries, on the side of the freeway or even at a bus stop.
“Every corner of Los Angeles needs our services,” said Nurse Santizo. “It can be in a pristine, abandoned, trashed, or graffiti-filled neighborhood.”
Michelle | Heroes Behind the Masks presented by CeraVe www.youtube.com
Santizo prepares for the workday by loading her backpack with supplies before heading to a section of downtown L.A. known as “skid row” to care for her clients, who are typically people experiencing homelessness and living on the fringes of society without regular access to healthcare. As the child of immigrant parents, she experienced firsthand a lack of healthcare and basic necessities. Her mother fled from El Salvador as a young woman, arriving in the United States alone and without shelter.
“My mother told me that the only people that acknowledged her while sleeping outside on a bench [were the people going in and out of] the church that was across the street,” said Nurse Santizo. She said her mother instilled in her that there are many reasons why people are homeless and that each individual has their own story. “[She] taught me to never judge someone’s struggle … my mother’s inspiring upbringing taught me if you have the time to help the broken or disadvantaged, then take a moment to acknowledge or help in some positive way.”
Michelle and her mother on a beachCourtesy of Michelle Santizo
Growing up, Nurse Santizo watched her parents struggle to earn a living wage to keep up with the family’s needs. “My father worked nearly seven days of the week and my mother worked as much as she could in jobs like babysitting, cleaning homes or caregiving. Feeding our family was my parent’s main concern…healthcare and all the other important aspects of life became secondary or non-existent. My parents could barely make enough income to buy fresh fruit or vegetables,” she said.
The Santizo familyCourtesy of Michelle Santizo
That upbringing is what drove her to pursue a career in medicine, with the goal of giving back to underserved communities. “[Access to] medicine should not be determined based on your socioeconomic status. It should be a right for someone to seek healthcare when it is needed and important, especially for children and adolescents who will be the future of our generation,” said Nurse Santizo. She credits her lack of access to healthcare as a child for empowering her to keep pushing for change.
When the opportunity to practice street nursing arose, Santizo knew instinctively that it was the right fit. Every workday she has meaningful interactions, but one experience in particular had a lasting impression on her. She encountered a middle-aged man who had lost his job during the pandemic and was forced to live on the streets. Nurse Santizo approached, and he asked if she wouldn’t mind examining his feet. As she gently inspected the condition of his skin, she explained that he needed a thorough cleaning and a special ointment and offered to wash his feet and patch them up.
Courtesy of CeraVe
“This kind man stared right into my eyes and nearly cried, as he shared ‘no one has ever cared for me like this ever since I’ve been forced to live on the streets, nor has anyone ever acknowledged my existence,’” recalled Nurse Santizo. “I remember squatting on the side of the street while cars were driving by … my only mission was to devote that moment in time to servicing a person who needed my attention and love. As you can tell, I love what I do, and I could scrub feet for days when servicing the most vulnerable populations.”
According to the most recent report, approximately 580,466 people were experiencing homelessness in America in January 2020. Most were individuals (70%) and the rest were people living in families with children. The full effect of the pandemic on the homeless populations across the country have yet to become clear, and hard data will not be fully known until late 2022 or early 2023.
“Bringing medicine to people who are not able to seek medical assistance due to their inabilities whether it be homelessness, chronic illness, or mental health has always been my true calling … to serve the broken, the sick, the vulnerable and the ones who really need a second chance at life,” said Nurse Santizo, a reminder that no one knows what another human is battling.
To recognize the healthcare professionals that are so often giving to others before themselves, CeraVe seeks to spotlight those that go beyond the call of duty for their patients and communities. The brand is honoring nurses such as Santizo in the second iteration of a docuseries titled Heroes Behind the Masks Chapter 2: A Walk In Our Shoes.
Follow along in the coming days for more stories of heroism, kindness and love.
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Courtesy of Elaine Ahn
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Nurse Ahn felt drawn to a career in healthcare partially because she grew up watching medical dramas on TV with her mother. While the fast-paced level of excitement seen on TV is what initially caught her interest, she quickly found out that real-life nursing is quite different from how it was portrayed on her favorite shows.
Courtesy of Elaine Ahn
The most striking difference, according to Ahn, is the level of involvement that nurses have with their patients during each 12-hour shift. Nurses are often the first to catch subtle signs and symptoms that provide insight into how a patient is doing emotionally as well as physically. Science tells us that emotional health and our overall attitudes have a direct impact on physical health and healing, and Nurse Ahn noticed early on that she could make a huge difference in her patient’s recovery, just by taking the time to sit down for a chat.
California is the only state in the country to require by law a specific number of nurses to patients in every hospital unit. It requires hospitals to provide one nurse for every two patients in intensive care and one nurse for every four patients in emergency rooms, for example. This regulation was created to increase positive outcomes for patients and prevent employee burnout. Even though she never has more than five patients to care for during a shift, Nurse Ahn, like many nurses,still feels stretched thin coping with the needs and demands of the day.
“Sometimes people just need to be heard. In the busy world of acute care, time can really be a luxury. With the number of tasks to perform and numerous alarms pulling nurses and aides in various directions, stretching us thin like pizza dough, it’s upsetting because it can get difficult to be able to spend as much time as we would like with our patients,” said Ahn.
“I remember one day having a patient and his family member being anxious and frustrated. In that moment, I found that drawing up a chair to sit at their eye level and giving them my full, undivided attention for however long I could truly went a long way. They later told me that it was the first time during their hospital stay that they felt heard without being rushed, and this experience led me to adopt this as a part of my practice,” said Ahn.
Nurse Ahn was assigned to a patient with terminal lung cancer, referred to in this series as “Grumpy Man.” Grumpy Man was dying, in constant pain and didn’t have any visitors. He was lonely and without hope, and it tugged at the nurse’s heartstrings.
Elaine | Heroes Behind the Masks presented by CeraVe www.youtube.com
She credits two of her mentors, Josh and Jess, with the idea of providing this patient with more TLC and this inspired her to implement the routine of having daily 15-minute chats with him.
“Especially upon learning that he had no friends or family members to visit or call him, I really wanted to be someone who was present with him in this very difficult time of his life. I wanted him to be able to have another human present and be engaged with him and for him to feel heard and cared for,” said Ahn.
Courtesy of Elaine Ahn
It’s no secret that nurses often put their own patients well-being above their own. That level of caring is what makes them so good at what they do, but it can also lead to exhaustion. Even though she thrives on the rush of being busy, caring for patients like Grumpy Man taught Nurse Ahn the importance of taking a moment to pause, center herself and prioritize taking care of herself first, so she has the energy to devote her undivided care and attention to her patients.
“It’s so easy to get caught up in the momentum of busy-ness, but I make the point to not rush myself and take things one thing at a time. To my delight, taking things one step at a time helped me complete things faster than rushing,” said Ahn.
To help care for the healthcare professionals that are so often giving to others before themselves, CeraVe seeks to spotlight those that go beyond the call of duty for their patients and communities in the Heroes Behind the Masks Chapter 2: A Walk In Our Shoes campaign. The goal of this year’s campaign is to showcase incredible nurses such as Nurse Ahn and celebrate the nursing community as a whole, recognizing the trials, emotional and physical toll the profession has while aiming to inspire and encourage them.
Follow along in the next few days for more stories of heroism here.
Make it a night to remember, they said.
Ah, prom. A quintessential teen experience that somehow manages to take every single one of those high octane, conflicting emotions felt during the entire school year and condense them into one solitary evening. All while everyone is dressed in elegant evening wear.
Though prom began as early as the 1800s as a simple cotillion, it has evolved over the years to become more extravagant—what with “promposals” and limousines and celebrity appearances. But, it has also evolved to become more LGBTQ inclusive and challenging of old gender rules.
Prom is (and continues to be) such an integral part of teen culture that it’s the central plot of many well loved rites-of-passage movies like “Pretty in Pink,” “She’s All That,” and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” Hopefully, your own prom was more like these movies, and less like “Carrie.”
But the truth is: for many of us, prom really was somewhere between a romantic comedy and a horror movie. For every romantic slow dance and first kiss there were also plenty of fashion disasters, alcohol experiments gone wrong and relationship drama. Lots and lots of relationship drama. Successes and failures, if you will.
In honor of prom season, Jimmy Fallon asked his “Tonight Show” audience to share some of their most memorable prom fails on Twitter. Here are 20 that were just too hilarious and/or relatable not to share. Hopefully it will help you love your own #PromFail.
Fallon went first.
1.
“My friend ripped his tuxedo and spent the night crying because he thought Men’s Wearhouse was going to sue him.” – @jimmyfallon
2.
“A guy I knew rented a tuxedo and died on his way to prom. It wasn't damaged, so his family decided to bury him while wearing it, but forgot it was just a rental and they didn't buy it, so they ended up with a huge debt and the other partygoers had to help them pay.” – @jon_jonz
3.
“A friend of mine was planning on going with a girl he had liked for many years. He was so nervous, he got Very drunk, then ended up throwing up all over his rented suit AND spending the night in jail for underaged drinking as he was entering, so she had to go alone…" – @Sallyjo25
4.
“Our limo driver was pulled over at the venue and turns out he was driving with an expired license and we had no way to get home so we had to scramble during prom to find another limo." – @allieng07
stretch limo GIFGiphy5.
“My date’s ex-boyfriend showed up to the prom and won her back. He didn’t even go to our school. I still paid for their room.” – @chrisfreas
6.
"I was walking up to a girl in the cafeteria to ask her to prom and someone threw a big piece of cake and hit me in the head right as I got there. Long story short, she went with someone else and I became known as 'cake boy.'" – @gumgumerson
7.
"I was dumped on prom. That’s it." – @beastmodemom247
break up crying GIFGiphy8.
"End of the night, stepped outside the perimeter to see my date off. A total distance of about 10 feet. Well within eye shot. Was denied re-entry because 1. I went on the grass (a real excuse they used) and 2. They genuinely thought I was a stranger crashing the party." – @L_Drumer
9.
"We didn't have a prom in 90's UK but did have a disco. I don't imagine U.S. proms had a quality beige buffet of sausage rolls, chicken legs, vol-a-vents & chips; & a DJ who waited till each record ended before lifting it off the player and putting the next one on!" – @Optimist_Eeyore
10.
"One year they played "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line - the grind pit immediately vacated the floor and the only ones left were like 8 of us that decided to square dance while everyone left to quench their thirst off the dance floor." – @TotallyVannah
dance off GIFGiphy11.
"The Prom King and Queen were twins. Their slow dance song was "Truly Madly Deeply". They pleaded with the DJ to find another song, and when asked why, they yelled "We're twins!" The DJ quickly picked another song: "Always be my baby." The king walked away, grumbling.” – @overbaughs
12.
"Walked in dressed to impress including fake fur. Walked beautiful self to bathroom sat down and realized the feet next stall facing towards toilet. I had been so self absorbed I walked into mens room.” – msyvonnne2u
13.
"My date's friend was trying to impress me by breakdancing. He ended up slipping on his own sweat and broke his wrist in the process. I guess he put the break in breakdancing.” – overbaughs
14.
“My girlfriend and I broke up right before my senior Prom! She ended up not going at all, so when we won queen and king, my friend just yelled out 'that’s one lonely castle”'! – @claydoughrocks
High School Reaction GIF by OppoSuitsGiphy15.
“A bunch of the girls in my class all got their super puffy, super expensive dresses from the same place. By the end of the night, they were stuck sitting because their dresses were falling apart. Meanwhile, 18 years later. I still have my maybe $200 dress.” – SaiyanaBrief
16.
"My husband and I are teachers. We were chaperones and he was doing the Russian bottle dance and tore his meniscus. Life’s little reminder he was 40.” – MrsMieschigan
17.
“Our prom was booked at a hotel resort. When prom committee went to decorate and setup the space. There was a huge wedding party already in progress. Wedding party offered more money so resort Mgr took it. Took 3+ yrs in court to get the $21k fee they refused to refund.” – @DingleBob
18.
“I wore the wrong spanx under my dress, does this really need more explaining?” – @itstherealmeboo
19.
“After leaving prom my date and I were involved in a 9 car accident on the freeway. Just bruises luckily, and hey we got to ride in the same ambulance together.” – @Wayren
For the last one, let’s just say a picture’s worth a thousand words:
20.
My daughter and her friends thought it would be fun to take pictures in the rainforest at our zoo. This was the moment a bird decided to fly right at them. #PromFail pic.twitter.com/wMMVdyrVJZ
— Lisa Hebert (@lmhksu) May 10, 2022
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