CU Nursing - Spring/Summer 2020 - 12

12

COLLEGE

On April 22, David "Scott" Ferguson
died after battling melanoma. Ferguson
was 49 and loved life. He grew so
touched by his nursing care before
he died that he left behind the Scott
Ferguson Memorial Fund to support
scholarships for University of Colorado
College of Nursing students. You can
still donate to the fund at https://giving.
cu.edu/fund/scott-ferguson-endowedscholarship-fund. Ferguson's goal: to
help ensure compassionate care for
future patients. The first scholarship
will be awarded this spring.

Nurses Bring 'Sunshine'
to Dying Man's Journey
HE LEAVES LESSONS AND LEGACY BEHIND
By Debra Melani

W

hen Darice Henritze found her husband collapsed on the hospital room floor struggling
for breath, his call button going unanswered,
it was an ugly déjà vu.

That morning, she had found Scott Ferguson on the couple's
bathroom floor, fighting for air stolen by the skin cancer that
had invaded his lungs. Petrified, Henritze called 9-1-1, and an
ambulance rushed her husband to the nearest hospital.
When she walked into the hospital room after taking a phone
call and saw the same scene again, she was dumbfounded. She
demanded a transfer.
"No. He won't survive it," she was told. But Henritze insisted,
signing papers owning responsibility and having her husband
moved to UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, where,
after months of being treated, he felt like he belonged.

CU College of Nursing | Spring/Summer 2020

'HEY, BUDDY ... WE GOT YOU'
"It was terrifying," Henritze said of the experience at the other
hospital, where she had found her unattended husband, who
had been trying to use a bedside urinal, on the floor.
Once back at University Hospital, a familiar nurse greeted
Ferguson. "When they rolled him into the 10th floor ICU, and
the nurse saw Scott, he said, 'Hey, buddy! What are you doing
here again? Don't worry. We got you.' "
That night, her intensely positive husband cried, Henritze said.
"He told me that he thought he was going to die at the other
hospital and that he was relieved to be back with people who
cared about him, that felt like family," Henritze said.

'THEY TREATED HIM LIKE A FRIEND'
After that episode, Ferguson and Henritze moved near the
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus so nothing
like it would happen again.
The couple chose the hospital largely on the advice of
Ferguson's father, a medical doctor who said his research
suggested it was the best hospital in the country for melanoma
treatment. "If there's any way we can get you there, we need
to get you there," he told his son.
They succeeded, and she will be forever grateful, Henritze said.
It was that "incredible culture" at University Hospital "where
they didn't give up on Scott" that made the difference in
https://givingcu.edu/fund/scott-ferguson-endowed https://givingcu.edu/fund/scott-ferguson-endowed
CU Nursing - Spring/Summer 2020

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