CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As many health care professionals left their jobs due to the demands of the pandemic, there were many who stayed, including longtime Atrium Health nurse Jill Addison.
Addison has helped perform heart surgeries for more than four decades, but at the end of April, she's hanging up her scrubs. Atrium Health gave WCNC Charlotte an exclusive look at the operating room before Addison finishes up her lengthy and life-changing career.
On Monday, Addison scrubbed in for surgery.
“There’s never a dull moment," Addison said. “Having done it 42 years, it’s just been a great ride."
Addison assists in open heart surgery, a job she's poured all of her heart into for decades.
“No regrets," she said. "I would do the same thing over and over."
The Atrium Health Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute team worked to replace an artificial heart pump on Monday. Working as a nurse in the operating room is a profession full of sacrifice and long hours, but for Jill, it's been a profession full of purpose.
“We really do see the most critical, sickest of the sick, and then they walk out ... we had that little part in saving them," Addison said.
Addison is a UNC Charlotte nursing graduate and has played a part in saving people's lives since the '80s. She was also part of Atrium Health's first-ever heart transplant.
“[I] can’t describe how that felt, seeing that really sick diseased heart coming out and putting the new fresh one in there," Addison said. “It still gets me every time.”
Some of Addison's colleagues say she's given her whole heart to this career. But Addison says she couldn't have done it without the help of her team.
“I know I’m going to miss it. I mean, I know I will. This has been my life, it’s been home," Addison said. “I’m the blessed one, the honored one, to work with all these talented people.”
Addison's last day is in two weeks. After she retires, she plans to do some medical nonprofit work.
Contact Lexi Wilson at lwilson@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.