StoryCorps at SHC: Trent Garrison

Trent Garrison: I transport patients throughout the hospital from point A to point B. And I believe it is really important, because without us how is the patient going to get their scans in a timely manner to tell either good news or bad news to their loved ones at home that are anxiously waiting? What's going on with my mom? What's going on with my aunt? So I go in to each situation open minded, caring, understanding that they might not want to be here. They don't feel good. They're worried, you know, their loved ones are in and out when they can be.

I always ask an icebreaker question like, where are you from? If they can tell me they're from Oregon, and they love to fish, or if they're from Hawaii, and they love the beach, then I know that their mind is not on what's really going on. And it takes me back to when I was a patient here.

Six months after I was hired on I got sick with diverticulitis. I had a pretty big surgery. And it's frustrating that you're not home. You're not feeling good. You're out of your element. And to understand how a patient feels, like myself at that time, really opened my eyes to understand how these patients feel today. So, for me to go in there and make them feel good again, that's just what I like to do. And it just, it turns. You run into them later on in life and they remember each and everything that we've talked about.

And I actually had an experience that was eye opening. We were school shopping at Walmart. And you know, I'm look at pencils and trying to find the coolest backpack for my kids.

And, um, family member comes up to me. And he goes, "You're Trent, right?" I was like, "Yeah." He's, "Well, you helped my mom in Stanford Hospital. I want to thank you for that. You know, she's not around, but you guys definitely left a mark on our family." And the feeling that I got and I get today from that story is, it's just a great feeling. And I think that's what life's about is just being happy and doing what you do. Just knowing that we woke up this morning to help somebody that's not feeling well. I'm blessed and it's just a great feeling to walk into these doors every day.

Produced by Stanford Health Care with interviews recorded in collaboration with StoryCorps, a national nonprofit whose mission is to preserve and share humanity's stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world www.storycorps.org

Sound Editor: Carolina Correa

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