When a Kentucky nurse noticed her affected person’s ft, she wasn’t anticipating to listen to a voice or the demand it made that she heard subsequent. “Hey, take off your footwear,” the voice stated, and that’s when she knew she needed to act.
When Lou Coulon arrived for her shift on the endoscopy unit at Baptist Well being Deaconess Madisonville, Kentucky, the place she had been a nurse for six years, she had no thought this shift would finish a lot in another way than any she had labored earlier than. It was a chilly February day, and Lou was sporting a model new pair of Brooks Footwear she had simply bought. Little did she know, she wouldn’t be leaving work along with her sneakers that day. As an alternative, she’d discover herself placing on hospital shocks after a voice demanded she take off her footwear.
All of it started a number of months earlier, when Lou Coulon first observed a affected person with holes of their footwear, in line with WTOC 11. Then, on that chilly and fateful day in February, the identical affected person returned for one more appointment, and Lou couldn’t assist however discover that the affected person was sporting the identical previous, worn-out footwear.
“The laces have been all shredded, and the soles have been torn up,” Lou recalled. “You possibly can see by the perimeters.”

With ice on the bottom and freezing temperatures exterior, the sight admittedly tugged at Lou’s heartstrings. Not solely was Lou involved for the affected person’s consolation, however she additionally fearful about their security. Sadly, the nurse didn’t have an additional pair of footwear at work and he or she actually didn’t need to quit the actual pair of footwear she was sporting that day since she had solely only recently purchased them for herself. However, then, she heard a small voice telling her in any other case.
“One thing was simply nudging me. I heard a voice saying, ‘Hey, take off your footwear,’” Lou defined.
Despite the fact that she had no different footwear to put on, Lou Coulon listened to that small voice in her head, taking the footwear off her personal ft and giving them to the affected person in want. Left with no footwear to put on house on the finish of the day, Lou determined she might make do by sporting some hospital socks with the rubber grips on the underside that her unit stored readily available for sufferers.
“I put them over my socks,” Lou stated, talking of the hopsital socks she wore after making a gift of the one footwear she had at work. “I assumed, ‘Oh, that may get me to the automotive.’”

Fortunately, Lou wasn’t pressured to tread by the snow and ice on that freezing February day in socks. As an alternative, she was capable of finally scrounge up one other pair of footwear somebody had donated. They have been previous and a number of other sizes too large, however they might get her house, 14 Information reported. Having the ability to discover and use these footwear felt like affirmation that she was in the precise place on the proper time, Lou defined.
“It type of reiterated that I’m in the precise place and the precise career,” the nurse stated.
I don’t suppose anybody would argue that Lou Coulon, who spent eight years working at Baptist Well being Deaconess Madisonville as a housekeeper whereas she studied and realized all the things she wanted to know to be caretaker earlier than turning into a nurse, is an ideal instance for these in healthcare. She’s additionally instance of merely being individual.
This nurse is a dwelling, respiratory instance of somebody so beneficiant that they might provide the shirt proper off their again, so it’s no shock that she was praised for her generosity. Though nearly anybody would agree that she went nicely above and past her job description, Lou sees it in another way.
“The nurses’ creed says that we’ll care for these which might be dedicated to our care. That’s a part of our career, is to hunt and look and take note of the welfare of our sufferers and to satisfy the wants that we are able to whereas they’re in our care,” Lou defined.
Making this already wonderful story even higher, Brooks Footwear finally realized of Lou’s kindness and despatched her a voucher to buy any footwear she needed to exchange the pair she gave her affected person. I don’t learn about you, however I really like a narrative with a contented ending, and this one provides us that and a lot extra. It’s not solely an incredible reminder that we will be the reply to another person’s prayers if we simply take note of the wants of these round us, nevertheless it additionally restores our religion in humanity.