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Egelund receives Legendary Caregiver award

Clay Today Sports
Posted 6/20/18

JACKSONVILLE – Tosha Egelund was just minutes away from her Middleburg home preparing to relax after a long shift at Wolfson Children’s Hospital, when she received a call from a physician whose …

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Egelund receives Legendary Caregiver award


Posted

JACKSONVILLE – Tosha Egelund was just minutes away from her Middleburg home preparing to relax after a long shift at Wolfson Children’s Hospital, when she received a call from a physician whose patient needed emergency chemotherapy.

“He’s deteriorating,” said Egelund, recounting what the physician told her. “If he doesn’t get chemotherapy tonight, the results won’t be good.”

The young boy, who had been admitted to Wolfson months prior, would end up on a heart and lung machine. Doctors would later identify a tumor pressing up against his trachea, which made the intake of oxygen difficult.

Egelund, a pediatric clinical pharmacist in hematology, oncology and bone marrow transplant, was walking into her house while talking to her boss. She asked if she should write the chemotherapy prescription and walk the physician through administering the drug, or return to work and do it herself. Egelund wanted the latter option, but not because of a lack of faith in her coworker, but because she wanted to see him through the night.

After Egelund’s boss suggested she head back to work, she administered the chemo. The boy would live through the night. Today, he’s in remission and Egelund is the recipient of the Legendary Caregiver Award.

The annual award is given to five employees out of the thousands employed by Baptist Health and Wolfson Children’s Hospital. A recipient must be nominated by their coworkers. Each person nominated is then grouped into a pool where a committee selects who is to receive the award out of those nominated.

The committee looks for someone who has gone above and beyond to care for their patients. When Egelund received this award early this month, she was surprised and honored.

“I mean, it was an honor,” Egelund said. “I was quite surprised and very thankful for them to nominate me for [this award]. I wasn’t expecting it but it is nice that people notice the care you’re providing.”

Egelund was raised in Clay County, just on the edge of the border that separates Clay from Bradford County. Born prematurely, Egelund was so small that her father could hold her and her twin sister in the palms of each of his hands. While her only complication was being born too early, her sister, however, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

“We were always in and out of hospitals for my sister and I became very interested at a young age because of that,” Egelund said. “I always loved science and my love for it just grew and grew. When I got closer and closer to graduation, I decided that I was going to be a physician.”

Quickly after this decision, Egelund would realize that the blood and gore physicians so often see was something she preferred to stay away from. Because of this, she switched paths and pursued a career as a pharmacist.

“I was able to get the best of everything I wanted from the medical field with becoming a pharmacist,” Egelund said. “I still got the patient interaction which I love, and I don’t get the blood and gore.”

A large part of her day-to-day work is writing chemotherapy prescriptions for patients, which are children. For some, seeing children undergoing such aggressive treatments might seem difficult, and for Egelund, it is. But despite that, she loves her job.

“Because of my sister, I’ve always had a passion for helping others, and for helping kids,” Egelund said. “A lot of times, a child has a disease for a reason they have absolutely no control over and because of that, I just feel for them. I want them to have the best possible life they can.”

Because cancer generally isn’t a quick fix, Egelund is often with patients for months at a time, through the worst of their cancer and onward to remission.

“You see these patients so often and you get to build these incredible relationships with them,” Egelund said. “It doesn’t always end the way we want it to, and when that happens, we grieve with them.

“We also celebrate with them, though, and I get comfort in that. I’m thankful God put me here. My work partner is amazing. My team is amazing. I couldn’t do anything I do without the people I work with and I am thankful for that.”