Honoring loss in the neurosurgical intensive care unit: an exemplar of caring.

This article illustrates how the staff in a neurosurgical intensive care unit cared for a 22-year-old woman who sustained severe head and spine trauma after a motor vehicle crash. She was pregnant, and the fetus died. The staff were determined to bring love and compassion to the tragic event, honoring the death of the fetus, making arrangements for baptism and for the family to spend time with the fetus and mother after the birth. Witnessing this demonstration of love reminds us how blessed we are to be nurses and how human life is sacred at every stage.