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Kim Mechling, RN, Care Coordinator, doesn’t often talk about the time she spent months in a coma. After all, it was years ago, and she made a full recovery. However, it impacted the way she approaches life, and she tries to live each day with gratitude. Her experience inspired her to recently create and implement Positive Friday to spread at UVA the lessons she learned. Here is her story.

The last thing Mechling remembers before slipping into a coma is looking down and noticing her feet were purple. “Oh that’s not good,” she thought.

Her next memory was waking up months later in the same California hospital where she was a nurse at the time. She couldn’t walk or talk.

“My first thought was, ‘What happened to March, April, May, and June?’” Mechling says. “And my second was, ‘Are my kids alright?’”

Mechling’s children were managing, praying hard every day, week after week, that their mother would wake up. Her 21-year-old daughter, Tiffany, was in charge of making decisions. Tiffany and the doctor had agreed to remove Mechling from life support, if she didn’t regain consciousness by June 19. She woke up on June 18. 

Reflecting back on that near-death experience from almost 20 years ago, Mechling credits her faith and optimism for giving her the will to pull through. During rehabilitation, she tried to focus only on what she could control, and in doing so, discovered infinite gratitude — for life, for her family, for regaining the strength to get out of bed, for learning to walk again, and for returning to work.

Deep breaths still hurt and she needs hearing aids, but Mechling has otherwise fully recovered. “By the grace of God, here I am!” she marvels.

Mechling moved from California to Virginia in 2007, where she took a nursing job at University Medical Associates (UMA). She later transitioned to UVA in 2020, bringing decades of nursing experience and her signature positivity to the Emily Couric Clinic Cancer Center.

Once she got settled into her new role, Mechling floated an idea by her nurse manager Devon Bloxsom for a weekly recognition email. It was something she had started at UMA. The purpose would be to encourage staff to recognize anyone who made their week a little better, especially housekeepers, pharmacists, chaplains, and other interdisciplinary teammates who often go unnoticed.

“Everyone contributes to a patient’s experience, not just the physicians and nurses,” Mechling explains. “In fact, the people who answer the phones are really the ones who set the tone for our clinic visits.”

Bloxsom loved the idea and told Mechling to run with it. “I see my role as being the voice for our team,” says Bloxsom. “I try to advocate for my staff as much as possible and recognize and reward their work.”

Once Mechling received the green light from Bloxsom, she sent her first Positive Friday email in December of 2020: “Let’s promote team spirit and acknowledge our awesome teammates. I’ll start! Phone room folks are the BOMB! Always so pleasant when they call, always helpful, always give me plenty of information. Great job all!!!”

The response was immediate and overwhelmingly positive:

Mechling’s idea has caught on, and she has been sending Positive Friday emails every week since December.

“Our days can be really difficult, especially when a patient is not doing well, but there are always things we can be thankful for,” says Mechling. “Gratitude is a choice.”

What was once a survival technique is now Mechling’s mindset in life and work, and one that has proven to be contagious.

“Everyone really looks forward to the emails,” says Bloxsom. “They have fostered camaraderie and teamwork and are such a breath of fresh air.”

Though she rarely tells her story of being in a coma, Mechling does share the lessons she learned throughout her journey. “I tell my patients, ‘It’s all going to be OK,’” she says. “And I truly mean it. There may be bumps along the way, but we will get through this together.”

She hopes others will find ways (and their manager’s support) to promote engagement and teamwork because they ultimately help us reach the most important goal – providing our patients with exceptional care.