It was about 36 years ago, but Ozzie Elias remembers it well.
He was seven years old when he had a procedure done at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, before undergoing heart surgery.
“I was very agitated and aggravated and I was treated by a nurse by the name of Elizabeth Ryan,” he said. “She had to give me an injection, which she did in my thigh, and I turned around and very impolitely told her to eff off. And when I went into my procedure, she went to speak to my mother and told her. The look on my mother’s face was priceless and made the nurses’ day.”
After the procedure, which Elias says happened in March or April 1986, his mother always hoped to find Nurse Elizabeth Ryan, but was never able to.
Elias’ mom passed away a few years ago. So now he’s taken over the mission to find her.
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“Back in the old days, when there were phonebooks, there were like 600 and some Elizabeth Ryans, which made it a little hard,” he said. “On Facebook, there’s also quite a few. And unfortunately, because I was a kid, I don’t know how old she was back in 1986.”
The quirky story, Elias says, has been told to friends and family, time and time again.
Even his big brother says the mystery nurse has become part of their family history.
“She’s just been part of our family story and our history,” said Joey Elias. “She saved my brother and introduced us to a whole new world of vocabulary as well and was okay with it.”
The brothers hope that by telling the story publicly, it may reach Nurse Elizabeth or perhaps jog someone’s memory. They want her to know that her work and humour didn’t go unnoticed, and it was certainly not forgotten.
“COVID-19 restrictions and all, I’d give her a big hug, say thank you, let her know what she meant to my mother, to our family history,” said Ozzie Elias. “And also, let her know that her work made a difference.”
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