“You never know the power of the words ‘My name is Lisa, and I’ll be your nurse today.’”
Lisa Zajac, now the Director of Clinical Informatics for McLaren Health Care had earlier in her career served as a bedside nurse on the bone marrow transplant unit at Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, which at the time cared for pediatric patients. It was there she first met the Jackson family.
Nearly 23 years later, the bond created at their first meeting was strengthened through the immediate emotional journey they were about to take and solidified through years of shared life events, growing into them considering themselves a collective family.
“She is definitely family,” said John Jackson. “We have experienced things with Lisa that the only word we can use to describe it is ‘family.’”
Blake Jackson was just 18 months old when he was admitted to Lisa’s unit.
It was five months prior that parents John and Kelly noticed a change in Blake. Already walking, Blake had seemingly regressed and was back to only crawling. Visiting a local emergency room, they were told there was no reason to be seriously concerned.
But his condition further deteriorated. Soon he wasn’t even able to crawl, and John and Kelly took him to the emergency department at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, where more thorough testing would confirm a cancer diagnosis — a sarcoma tumor on his spine, affecting his ability to use his legs.
Blake was rushed into an immediate surgery, though the cancer had already progressed to stage IV, spreading tumors to his lungs. It was a dire situation and heart wrenching for John, Kelly, and sister Kathleen — Blake was given just a 5 percent chance of surviving. And if he beat those odds, his chances of walking again were 15 percent.
With the tumors removed and after a course of chemotherapy, Blake was admitted to the Karmanos Cancer Institute for a stem cell transplant. He would be there for more than 30 days, and the family would spend every day with him and his primary nurse — Lisa.
“Within two minutes of meeting her, we knew she would be a gift for Blake,” John said, describing Lisa as possessing a calming presence in an immeasurably stressful situation. “We made a connection right away. She had a way of communicating. You don’t know exactly what you’re going into, and things can change so quickly. That was critical.”
Blake was the youngest patient on the unit at the time. Seeing an innocent life placed in such a desperate situation could exact an emotional toll on any nurse, especially those with children of their own.
With consideration of her fellow nurses, Lisa, who did not have any children, had volunteered to care for Blake.
“When we found that out, there was an instant connection,” John said. “To think that someone would volunteer for that, to put aside their fear for the sake of other nurses. That related to us quickly.”
Over the next several weeks, Blake would undergo treatment, which would prove to be overwhelmingly successful, with Lisa by the side of Blake and his family at each step. Blake’s treatments were effective, and he reached the point that he could be discharged home with his parents and sister.
But Blake’s discharge would ultimately also prove to be the start of the lifelong bond that would deepen between the Jacksons and Lisa.
A couple of months post-discharge, when the Jacksons’ life was starting to gain order, John and Kelly felt comfortable to spend an evening at a family wedding. And when it came time to find a babysitter, the first call they made was to Lisa.
“We were thinking ‘who has been around Blake,’” Kelly said. “And that’s where it all started.”
From that night, the family bond between the Jacksons and Lisa only grew tighter. Kelly organized a “first birthday” on the anniversary of Blake’s stem cell transplant. Lisa was there.
Blake received his First Communion. The family attended the local Festival of Trees during the holidays. Lisa was there.
Blake, the baby who was once given a 15 percent chance of ever walking again, began playing hockey. Lisa was a familiar sight sitting in the crowd alongside John, Kelly, and Kathleen.
When Blake started golfing, Lisa would tee it up with him a couple times every summer.
Even Kathleen, who grew up in a family of nurses, was further inspired by Lisa’s care of Blake to pursue her own education and career as a nurse, ultimately returning to school to earn a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree — a degree Lisa possesses.
And once Blake, now 24, reached his teenage years, he began driving his growing friendship with Lisa.
“It’s hard to even put into words what Lisa means to me,” he said. “When you look at who are the most important people in your life, she’s definitely on the list, knowing the impact she has had on our whole family.”
Blake started by texting Lisa every May during National Nurses Week, thanking her endlessly. Then he began arranging more rounds of golf and getting together for dinner.
When it came time for Blake to apply for college, he credits Lisa with helping to get him into Michigan State University. (Like any courteous familial relationship, this is a claim Lisa likes to rebuff. Blake would graduate in 2023 and begin working as an estimator for a large construction company.)
And when Blake graduated high school and his family threw his grad party, Lisa was undoubtedly invited. But Blake sprung a surprise, special request on her — a literal sign of their shared history and the bond they established.
Blake wanted to get matching tattoos, a first for Lisa, but the second for Blake.
“I know that if I asked her, she would be the only one who would say yes,” he said.
The pair drove around looking for a tattoo parlor that could accommodate them on short notice — it had to be done soon before Lisa lost her nerve.
When they found one, they each got the tattoo they had designed — the Chinese characters for “Nurse” and “Patient” connected by a heart on their rib cages. Blake’s, though, was unique in that the tattoo lies halfway between his thoracotomy and chest tube scars from his surgery in 2001.
This truly would keep them connected forever. But to them, that was never in doubt.
“Every time I’m with him and his family, it gives you reason to hope, and it’s a reminder that there is good that comes out of the work we do,” Lisa said. “I’m grateful to be in their life and to have them in mine.”
Says Kelly, “I am thankful that God put her in our lives.”