Aimee

SCCM expresses heartbreak over the death of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis this past weekend. The Society extends its deepest condolences to his loved ones, colleagues, and the broader critical care community grieving this loss. Read SCCM’s full statement below.

@KimberlyDaum Love to you Kim!

@AimasaurusRN I am a liver transplant recipient who spent some days in VGH ICU. I have no memory of any of it but nearly 8 years later, I am still here. Thank you for all you do. And your poem is beautiful, loving and true. ❤️💔❤️

@washingtonpost He did make a difference. We will honour him everyday at the bedside ❤️❤️

Alex Pretti, the man fatally shot by Border Patrol Saturday, was a local intensive care nurse dedicated to caring for veterans. “Alex wanted to make a difference in this world,” Pretti’s family said in a statement shared with The Post. wapo.st/4rcNqxd

@danpfeiffer @KristiNoem @StephenM No greater honour than this work at the bedside ❤️

Read this and then remember that @KristiNoem, @StephenM, and the rest smeared Alex Pretti after he was shot dead in the street

@jonlovett Yes we will keep doing our work at the bedside in honour of him. We know who he was because we know what it takes to do this work. Nurses! We’ve got this let’s keep on loving our neighbors every day!

Just devastating

@krassenstein He lives on in all of us nurses who know what it takes to do this work. I am proud of you, of him, of all of us. We’ve got this! Let’s keep loving our neighbor out these every day.

BREAKING: A letter from Alex Pretti’s Final Nursing Student: “I was Alex Pretti’s final nursing student. He was my friend and my nursing mentor. For the past four months, I stood shoulder to shoulder with him during my capstone preceptorship at the Minneapolis VA Hospital. There he trained me to care for the sickest of the sick as an ICU nurse. He taught me how to care for arterial and central lines, the intricacies of managing multiple IVs filled with lifesaving solutions, and how to watch over every heartbeat, every breath, and every flicker of life, ready to act the moment they wavered. Techniques intended to heal. Alex carried patience, compassion and calm as a steady light within him. Even at the very end, that light was there. I recognized his familiar stillness and signature calm composure shining through during those unbearable final moments captured on camera. It does not surprise me that his final words were, “Are you okay?” Caring for people was at the core of who he was. He was incapable of causing harm. He lived a life of healing, and he lived it well. Alex believed strongly in the Second Amendment and in the rights rooted in our Constitution and its amendments. He spoke out for justice and peace whenever he could, not only out of obligation, but out of a belief that we are more connected than divided, and that communication would bring us together. I want his family to know his legacy lives on. I am a better nurse because of the wisdom and skills he instilled in me. I carry his light with me into every room, letting it guide and steady my hands as I heal and care for those in need. Please honor my friend by standing up for peace, preferably with a cup of black coffee in hand and a couple of pieces of candy in your pocket, just as he would. He would remind you that caring for others is hard work, and we must do whatever it takes to get through the long shifts. Step outside with your dog, breathe in the world, hike or bike as he loved to do, and let yourself find peace in the quiet moments within nature. Stand up for justice and speak with those whose views differ from your own. Hold your beliefs with strength, but always extend love outward, even in the face of adversity. Take one step, no matter how small, to help heal our world. Through these acts, carry his light forward in his name. Let his legacy continue to heal.”

@NightShiftMD I have never been a social media person but I’m an ICU nurse in Nanaimo and it would mean a lot to me if you could help my poem reach Alex Pretti’s colleagues and loved ones

@NationalNurses can you help get a Canadian icu nurses poem to Minnesota icu nurses. One of us!

@medstudent_kait in solidarity with you all today

@mnnurses I haven’t ever been much of a social media person, but it would mean a lot if you could help this poem reach Alex’s colleagues and loved ones (love from a BC ICU RN)