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Cindy Andrew summed up her August visit to Wyoming’s Cheyenne Regional Medical Center this way, “It was the worst day of my life, but I received the very best care.”

Accompanied by her husband and daughter, Cindy made the long drive from Iowa to Cheyenne to say a final goodbye to her sister, Diane, who had suffered several strokes and was receiving the last stages of care at an area hospice center.

And in fact Diane passed away during their visit, with Cindy at her bedside.

During her sister’s final hours, Cindy started having chest pain and took the nitroglycerin she carried due to a heart condition, hoping it would help.

Instead, the pain increased and her blood pressure went through the roof. Hospice center nurses convinced Cindy to check herself into Cheyenne Regional Medical’s ED for treatment, where she wound up staying for the next several days after tests revealed that she had suffered a heart attack.

“Everyone here knew the situation with my sister, and they were all so compassionate, from the minute we walked through the door,” Cindy said.

The kindness, thoughtfulness and compassion of the Emergency Department staff and providers surrounded her throughout her stay.

“The nurses checked on me all the time,” Cindy said later. “You just don’t get that kind of care in other places. If I could, I would take all these Wyoming nurses back home with me.”

A month after her discharge, Cindy and her family returned to CRMC, bringing a cake for the Telemetry Unit, to show their thanks. And they each took time to hug and personally thank several of the nurses as well as a hospitalist.

“They are all angels,” Cindy said. “And we want each of them to know how grateful we are as a family.”