Sarah Juhasz
Children’s Health Care of Atlanta Egleston
Kayla Wilson’s daughter Marlie was a patient of Sarah Juhasz. Marlie was a very, very sick little girl, but Wilson says that Juhasz was able to bring a smile to her little girl’s face and that had an enormous impact on her life.
Juhasz, a specialist in pediatric ICU, has been a nurse for only 6 years, spending the past 2 and a half years at Children’s Healthcare.
She says she loves the team work at CHOA. She says everyone does their best to help the children get well and working as a team offers the best outcome.
She adds, “Working at a top pediatric hospital allows me to be creative with children. I do not know of another place where therapy dogs can ride MRI machines to calm a scared child…or a nurse can use play distraction like water gun fights with syringes.”
Sarah says when she was 15, she was the babysitter for a four year old boy with cancer and he was her inspiration to become a nurse.
She adds, “I also was influenced by a NICU nurse at Atlanta Medical Center, Ginnie Weber. She inspired me by telling many stories of hope throughout her years as a nurse. These stories of hope, courage, and will-to-live molded me to be the nurse I am today.”
Sarah met Marlie when she was 6 years old after she had just gone through a bone marrow transplant.
She says, “When Marlie was transferred to our unit, she was not happy that she was in the ICU. She put on a mean face; however, I knew that just gave her more spunk to get better. I knew deep down inside that she was a sweet, kind little girl who was trying to be very brave and courageous and pushing on with her fight against Severe Aplastic Anemia.”
“Later in the week when I returned to work, I was asked by a fellow employee to see if I could go cheer up Marlie. When I walked into the room, I found a completely different Marlie than earlier in the week. She was sad, upset, and gloomy for she had lost all of her hair. I realized that Marlie had not just lost her hair. She lost her smile. She had lost her spunk!”
“At that point, I knew that I had to do something. I needed to get a smile back on her face so she had the will to keep fighting. So, I went into her room and asked her if she wanted to be a hairdresser for a day. She got a slight grin on her face as I explained the plan of her cutting off all of my hair for donation. She was so excited especially when she realized she had 3 different kinds of scissors to choose from.”
“And she began cutting…lock by lock by lock…for over two hours. With every cut her smile grew larger and larger. I knew that this moment was changing her journey, her life.”
Sarah adds that because of Marlie’s 6 year old cutting skills (or lack thereof) she had to completely shave her head to even things out. When Sarah returned to Marlie’s room completely bald, Marlie felt comfortable removing her hat because she understood that bald is beautiful and the two made a pact to grow their hair out together.
Sarah adds, “Marlie is such a brave and courageous fighter and I am so proud of her.”
