By Steve Dorfman
The Palm Beach Post, Fla.
Ask Kathy Kino and she’ll tell you that her remarkable journey now seems almost pre-ordained.
That every trial and tribulation — including surviving breast cancer and later nearly dying on the operating table during what was supposed to be an outpatient procedure — has made her better at what she considers her dual callings: nursing and spiritual counseling.
This single mother, nurse, chaplain and adjunct professor is grateful for the life-and-death struggles she’s endured, for they’ve provided invaluable lessons — ones she’s vowed to pass on to those who look to her for guidance.
For Kino, the most important person to influence is her 12-year-old son, Townsend Childress — who has also taught her a thing or two along the way.
The preternaturally mature middle-schooler (“He’s an old soul,” Kino says) helped organize a blood drive at his school and next and appeared on the Food Network — thanks to the self-taught cooking skills he developed in order to help his mom regain her strength when she was at her darkest hour.
“He watched all the cooking shows for healthful recipes so he could prepare my meals after my surgeries. Salmon, chicken, steak, marinated Brussels sprouts, grilled vegetables. There’s nothing he can’t make. And he knew I needed good nutrition to recover.”
He also instinctively knew just the right thing to say when Kino was hospitalized: “After my bilateral mastectomy, he came into the room and said, ‘You’re still the most beautiful mommy.’”
At that moment, Kino knew that all the years she had spent teaching Townsend that “beauty comes from the inside” had not fallen on deaf ears.
Born to be a nurse
Kino, 46 and a Vero Beach native, says she knew from childhood that she wanted to be nurse.
“I was always drawn to it, from the time I started as a candy striper at age 14.” She took great satisfaction in “bringing smiles to patients’ faces in any way I could.”
After earning her nursing degree from Georgia Southern University in 1993, Kino spent the first decade of her career as a trauma nurse — working in emergency rooms throughout Palm Beach County. She’d later transition into surgical nursing.
Kino’s decade-long marriage produced Townsend in 2004. She and her ex-husband — with whom remains cordial (“He brought Townsend to see me every day when I was in the hospital”) — split around a decade ago.
That was when she decided, “I needed to deepen my relationship with God — so I became an ordained chaplain.”
Whenever appropriate, she incorporated her heightened spirituality into her nursing. If she sensed patients or their relatives or friends could benefit from some spiritual comforting, and were open to hearing her message about a higher power, she’d share with them the belief that “nothing is impossible with God on your side.”
By now a full-time employee with Good Samaritan Medical Center, Kino’s spiritual training helped colleagues, patients — and even nursing students who were fulfilling their clinical requirements.
“When nursing students from Palm Beach Atlantic University would struggle with the emotional toll nursing could sometimes take, I’d explain how I found comfort in knowing that God was always with me — and with our patients.”
Word eventually got back to PBAU instructors and administrators that there was a nurse at Good Sam who melded the medical side of health care with a sense of spirituality that comforted both the sick and their would-be healers.
“PBAU basically ‘recruited’ me to become a nursing professor — but I’d need to get my master’s degree first.”
In 2013, Kino began attending Florida Atlantic University to earn her master’s degree in holistic nursing. “Everything was going great — until November 13, 2013.”
Health crisis
That’s when Kino — a lifelong runner and fitness enthusiast — was diagnosed with breast cancer. She took her FAU final exams two weeks later, then, during the December break between semesters, underwent a bilateral mastectomy.
“I spent the next six weeks recovering at home — but was determined to show Townsend that we’d get through this together and that I’d be fine. That’s why I ran the Komen Race for the Cure in January.”
Yes — just seven weeks removed from a double mastectomy, Kino not only completed the 2014 Komen, she won the survivors division.
Unfortunately, her travails would continue.
Six weeks of radiation treatments (and accompanying burns) gave her a visceral understanding of, she says, “just how much cancer patients suffer when they’re going through treatments.”
Maintaining her class schedule at FAU while recovering from cancer proved challenging — but not insurmountable — until October 2014.
“I developed eight benign tumors in my abdomen and underwent a laparoscopic hysterectomy.”
It didn’t go smoothly.
“What was supposed to be outpatient surgery turned into two weeks in ICU fighting for my life.”
Kino bled internally and nearly died on the operating table. She underwent hours of emergency abdominal surgery and received eight blood transfusions.
“I was sure I was going to die that day — or soon after — and not be able to say goodbye to Townsend.”
That she didn’t succumb is, she says, a minor miracle — one that again proves, she believes, “Anything is possible with God.”
By the time she was discharged and assigned home health nurses, “I could barely walk and was unable to drive for months — but I was determined to not give up.”
Despite pleas from her professors to take a medical leave, Kino maintained her course schedule — and graduated in May.
What’s more, she’s been an adjunct nursing professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University since 2015: “My dream has always been to teach nursing students about health assessment and the importance of spiritual care and prayer in the health-care industry.”
Kino revels in sharing her story, she says, “not because I did anything special — but because I want others who are struggling to know that nothing is impossible.”
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