Doing One’s Heart Good

Ramon Anguiano’s job was up in the air, he had spent his savings on this month’s rent and his heart was broken. After open-heart surgery in April, he had been in and out of the hospital for various complications and was unable to beat the street to look for work.

Anguiano even told his three young children they would have to skip Christmas this year.

That’s when nurses at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center stepped in.

“Bull. . .,” nurse Pat Wilson told him after hearing Anguiano’s sad tale. “Your kids are going to have Christmas.”

“No, don’t say a bad word,” Anguiano said, scolding her for her language.

On Friday, the nurses showed Anguiano, 46, what healing and the holiday spirit is all about. His hospital room, once a place of sickness and depression, now glows with red and green packages. For the Anguianos, it’s starting to look a lot like Christmas.

“This is the best Christmas for me and my wife,” said Anguiano, surrounded by his wife, Adrianna, 29, and his children, Luis, 8, Edith, 5, and Eric, 1.

Wilson, who has been Anguiano’s cardiovascular nurse since his heart valve replacement in April, said she noticed her patient was unusually sleepy and depressed last Monday as she changed his dressing for a groin injury. He had seen his family only twice since being admitted to the hospital early last month because his wife does not drive and was unable to make the trek from their home on the outskirts of Glendale.

*

“That night, before going home, I decided to ask him straight up what was going on,” said Wilson, a tough, 20-year nurse at the hospital.

Anguiano wept as he told her that his disability check wasn’t due until after Christmas and his last $450 paycheck from an equipment-rental company, where he services small engines, was already destined for overdue bills. Besides, Anguiano said, he was unable to cash the check as long as he was stuck in the hospital.

Wilson told Anguiano she had been in a similar predicament years ago, and that now it’s a distant memory, which makes her even more grateful for the relative plenty she now enjoys. After their talk, Wilson walked straight to the nurses’ station and told her colleagues what she had learned.

“Everybody went shopping,” Wilson said. “Some brought money in that I went and shopped with, others bought their own gifts. We spent a lot of money, but we had fun doing it.”

Some of the nurses spent more than $150 on gifts for the family.

The fruits of their generosity were on display Friday afternoon, including toys, candy and even a couple of packs of diapers for little Eric.

A relative drove Anguiano’s family to the hospital. The children looked around the room with wide eyes, fingering some of the packages.

“This is going to be the best Christmas ever,” Anguiano said.