< Back Steven Arms David and Jan Blittersdorf Frank Bryan Mary Cushman David Marvin Raymond J. McNulty Lindsey Melander Miriam E. Nelson Germain Njila David Perez Andrew Siebengartner Bridget Thabault John Todd Mary C. Watzin Jody Williams		BRIDGET THABAULT Class of 1989, M.S.N., 2003, College of Nursing and Health Sciences Working on a pediatric ward at Fletcher Allen Health Care, Bridget Thabault felt uneasy about her future in nursing. Her grandfather had been a doctor, her father was a doctor, her sister was a doctor, and she was wondering whether she shouldn’t have become a doctor, too. But when a ten-month-old infant died of leukemia and she consoled the child’s distraught mother, she realized, “If I had been the oncologist or the resident, I would not have been at that child’s bedside. I would not have been there to support that child’s mother. I needed to be close to the patient and the family.” She resolved to return to the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, earn a master’s degree, and become a family nurse practitioner. Thabault’s graduate work involved her in developing a community-based care program that enlists physicians, nurses, social workers, clergy, and others in support of critically ill children and their families. “The goal of palliative pediatric care is to put life into a child’s years, not merely years into the child’s life,” she says, pointing out that “most children receive aggressive treatment right up to the hour before they die. It’s incredible to expect a parent to say, ‘Stop all measures.’ No one should have to bear that incredible burden alone.” “I want the system to support every child, so that children live as well as they can as long as they can.” It was in this spirit that Thabault accompanied a child and her family on a round-trip limousine trip to New York City, where they met Rosie O’Donnell. Within three weeks of her visit, which was supported by the Make a Wish Foundation, the child died of rhabdomyosarcoma. “These are the kinds of things,” Thabault says, “that keep me in nursing.”