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 couple of months earlier, when Lou Coulon first observed a affected person with holes of their footwear, in keeping 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for one more appointment, and Lou couldn’t assist however discover that the affected person was carrying the identical outdated, worn-out footwear.
“The laces had been all shredded, and the soles had been torn up,” Lou recalled. “You possibly can see by means of the edges.”

With ice on the bottom and freezing temperatures outdoors, the sight admittedly tugged at Lou’s heartstrings. Not solely was Lou involved for the affected person’s consolation, however she additionally nervous about their security. Sadly, the nurse didn’t have an additional pair of footwear at work and she or he actually didn’t need to quit the actual pair of footwear she was carrying that day since she had solely only in the near past 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.
Though 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 residence on the finish of the day, Lou determined she may make do by carrying some hospital socks with the rubber grips on the underside that her unit stored available for sufferers.
“I put them over my socks,” Lou stated, talking of the hopsital socks she wore after giving freely the one footwear she had at work. “I believed, ‘Oh, that may get me to the automobile.’”

Fortunately, Lou wasn’t compelled to tread by means of the snow and ice on that freezing February day in socks. As an alternative, she was in a position to ultimately scrounge up one other pair of footwear somebody had donated. They had been outdated and several other sizes too large, however they’d get her residence, 14 Information reported. With the ability to discover and use these footwear felt like affirmation that she was in the proper place on the proper time, Lou defined.
“It type of reiterated that I’m in the proper place and the proper occupation,” 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 discovered every thing she wanted to know to be a very good caretaker earlier than changing into a nurse, is an ideal instance for these in healthcare. She’s additionally a very good instance of merely being a very good individual.
This nurse is a dwelling, respiratory instance of somebody so beneficiant that they’d 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 properly above and past her job description, Lou sees it in another way.
“The nurses’ creed says that we are going to maintain these which can be dedicated to our care. That’s a part of our occupation, is to hunt and look and take note of the welfare of our sufferers and to fulfill the wants that we are able to whereas they’re in our care,” Lou defined.
Making this already superb story even higher, Brooks Footwear ultimately discovered of Lou’s kindness and despatched her a voucher to buy any footwear she wished to exchange the pair she gave her affected person. I don’t find out about you, however I really like a narrative with a cheerful ending, and this one provides us that and a lot extra. It’s not solely an ideal reminder that we might be the reply to another person’s prayers if we simply take note of the wants of these round us, but it surely additionally restores our religion in humanity.