LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Norton Healthcare community is grieving the sudden loss of a beloved nurse who spent decades caring for pediatric cancer patients. Terry Bowman died last Thursday, just two weeks after his own cancer diagnosis.
He worked Norton Children's pediatric oncology floor, lovingly known as 7 West, for 32 years.
"Terry is one of the nurses that you emulate, that you hope you can live up to his standards," Samantha Martin, a Norton Children's nurse on the oncology floor, said.
He was a class act in compassion and commitment.
"Terry embodied the art of nursing, the ability to come in, do a task but make someone smile while you do it, the ability to take a really heavy day or a heavy diagnosis and laugh with a child through it," Taylor Bergman, the nurse manager on 7 West, said. "I think sometimes when people hear pediatric oncology, or hematology, or really sick children in general, they think that the these four walls are really sad, and they think that the unit is really sad. I found right away this place is nothing but joy most of the time, because of the caregivers."
Because of caregivers like Bowman.
"I think Terry had this way of teaching you that didn't make you feel stupid or didn't make you feel inferior, but just kind of really pushed you early on to figure things out," Bergman said. "But he was right there if you needed him. And just sharing his love, a lot of nurses were able to really learn how to relate to patients when being with Terry."
This wasn't a job, this was his life, filled with countless smiles and unwavering dedication.
"Terry is a huge part of the reason I became a nurse," Martin said.
Before Martin started working on 7 West, she was a patient there. Terry was her nurse.
"As a 17-year-old, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma," Martin said. "I had quite a few surgeries back to back, and was very, very ill and had not gotten out of bed in quite some time. And he informed me that we were getting up today. And I informed him, 'No, I did not like that.' And he pretty much told me, I don't care, we're doing it anyway. I respected it more because he took the laps with me. He talked to me the whole time. He knew I needed a friend, and he had decided that we were more than that. We were family, and that's what Terry was."
"He was a tough act to follow," Bergman said. "You didn't want to be the nurse that had to go after him, because we knew the patient was going to be upset that Terry was leaving for the day."
"I work night shift. You walk in at night, and the kids are so excited. 'Guess what I did with Nurse Terry today? Guess what we did?' And there's something so joyful about the fact that I get to look them in the eye and say, 'did you know that Nurse Terry was my nurse?' And they light up. And there's this sense of camaraderie and it's beautiful, because for one moment, there's one more person who loved and knew what it was to be loved by Nurse Terry. And that's what 7 West is. It's what it's always been. And it's partially because for 32, almost 33 years, Terry's been here."
He retired in February.
"Thinking about how many children he helped ring the bell and help get them through their treatment, it seemed appropriate that we started a new tradition, that when you retire from 7 West you get to ring the bell, too," Bergman said.
But he never really left.
"I think he was ready for retirement, but I don't know that he was ready to give up being a 7 Wester," Bergman said. "He was back up on the unit the next week, helping stock gowns or helping round on patients, bringing coffee to parents."
It wasn't your average Joe, but the perfect blend of honestly and optimism.
"When Terry's working, the coffee is brewing," Bergman said. "So you can smell fresh coffee from sunup to sundown when he leaves a shift."
With a true servant's heart, he volunteered at Camp Quality year after year allowing kids to be kids, despite their cancer diagnosis.
"I really think that the kids went to camp just to see Terry," Martin said. "He made everybody feel like they were the only person in the room. And he just he loved life."
Now, 7 West is filled with memories of Bowman.
"Ultimately, he lost his life very quickly after his diagnosis," Bergman said.
He was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer on July 2, and died 16 days later.
"It's even harder because it went so fast that none of us got to love him the way he loved us," Martin said.
"Affectionately, a lot of the staff in his passing have been having coffee on the unit, coffee bars; really remembering him that way," Bergman said. "It is astounding and stunning to read all of the tributes and see what impact he made, and think about that reunion, and how many kids get Nurse Terry back."
An honorary 7 West Warrior whose legacy of kindness and care will live on for generations.
"7 West will never be the same," Martin said. "We are forever changed, but we are forever better, because Terry was part of us."