Nurses Week profile: Elaine Stewart uses frightful incident as inspiration for others

Elaine Stewart has used the most vulnerable moment of her life, which occurred more than 30 years ago, to motivate herself and hopes to the do the same for others in honor of National Nurses Week.

“It’s a mindset,” said Stewart, a RN in pre-admission testing at Tulsa Spine & Specialty Hospital. “Could it have killed me? Absolutely. Am I better than dead? Of course I am … It’s a drive to me in each and every patient I come into contact with.”

Stewart was going through a euphoric time in 1990. Living in Abilene, Texas, Stewart had just learned she was six weeks pregnant with a daughter. She had not yet told anyone in her extended family of her expected new addition. But just days after finding out the joyous news, Stewart encountered a horrific event.

Stewart was threatened at gunpoint, robbed and pistol-whipped in the parking lot of her place of employment.

“He laid the gun flat in his hand and hit it against my face,” Stewart recalled.

Following the attack, Stewart needed emergency surgery to stop the hemorrhaging, particularly with her pregnancy. Fortunately, the bleeding was stabilized but her right eye was too damaged and could not be saved.

“It was one of the most vulnerable times in my life,” Stewart said. “I was scared. I didn’t know what to expect.”

Stewart spent the next two nights recovering in a local hospital. It was the care she received from an overnight nurse that left a significant impact on her life.

“I had a male nurse,” she said. “He always walked in bubbly. He would walk in with pictures of people who lived with one eye and life was ok for them … At that point, I thought what a neat thing to work in a place where you could make that kind of impact.”

That impact stayed with Stewart years later. With two children still at home, Stewart looked to return to the workforce with a second career. In 2008, at age 46, she walked into the admissions office at Rogers State University and asked what she needed to do to become a nurse.

Stewart went on to obtain her degree, which included a nine-month externship at Hillcrest Medical Center, and passed the NCLEX exam. She has spent the past two and a half years at Tulsa Spine and Specialty Hospital.

Stewart has spoken about her accident to her children’s classes and is open to share her story with patients, in hopes of bringing awareness to similar situations.

“If I can keep somebody from getting hit, that’s my goal,” said Stewart, who added her positive mentality has played a critical role in helping her healing. “What do you do when you’re handed lemons? It’s all according to attitude. I could have let it ruin my life. I could have sat around and said, ‘I never can.’”

While the attack cost Stewart her eye, she believes part of her mission continues to be an inspiration to others.

“He had already taken my eye,” she said. “I wasn’t going to let him take anything else.”