Warmth, Compassion and Experience: How Nurse Sandra Transcended her Role as Head Nurse to Beloved Family Member
Sandra Hewitt-Stone is a once-in-a-lifetime nurse for her client and his family.
Sandra has been a Registered Nurse with VHA Home HealthCare (VHA) for nearly 12 years. Her work in pediatric complex care is nothing short of heroic. Sandra spends most of her days in the home of a child with complex medical needs and seizures. While her job involves many clinical tasks, the heart of her work is rooted in the connection she builds with the family she supports.
Sandra is one of 5 VHA nurses who were nominated for the 2026 Hospital News Nursing Hero Awards. The Nursing Hero Awards started in 2005 to honour and thank extraordinary nurses across Canada. In honour of celebrating Nursing Week at VHA, we are proud to highlight each of our nurses who received a nomination.
VHA’s Communications team had the pleasure of meeting Sandra, her client, and her client’s parents, Margarita and Romulo. We sat together in a small room of their apartment — Sandra just next door, caring for their son — as Margarita and Romulo shared stories of the warmth and comfort she has brought to their family for over more than a decade.
What they shared was profoundly moving, and we are deeply honoured to include their words alongside Sandra’s story in this Nursing Hero Award nomination.
“Our son is courageously navigating life with an extraordinarily rare genetic disorder called FGF-12, which has fewer than six documented cases globally. He is currently in a complex care program. His medical profile includes severe multifocal epilepsy, visual impairment, global developmental delay, nonverbal status, non-ambulatory condition, severe osteoporosis and osteopenia with nutritional intake provided exclusively throughout gastronomy tube. Throughout our journey, alongside our unwavering faith, the greatest source of support has been our remarkable nurse, Sandra. As our son now approaches his birthday, we reflect on the invaluable role she has played as his head nurse for the past 12 years. Her contributions deserve heartfelt recognition through this award. Sandra is a beacon of warmth, compassion, and experience. The comprehensive knowledge we have gained about our son’s care, especially given his fragile immunocompromised state, stems directly from her guidance. Her exceptional work ethic shines through her consistent enthusiasm and commitment, arriving each day ready to give 200 per cent. The joy that radiates from our son when he hears Sandra’s voice reflects the profound bond they share. She is his Second Mom. This creates heartwarming moments that we cherish. Sandra has transcended her role as a head nurse. She has truly become a beloved member of our family. The reason our son thrives at home, despite his medical fragility, is largely due to Sandra and her exceptional instructions on how to care for our angel. Thank you, VHA, for blessing us with an angel Sandra to care for our son.”
“Sandra is a beacon of experience.”
Sandra is a health care professional who has always known her calling was to make a difference in the lives of her clients and community. With a love for mothers and babies, Sandra’s journey started in Jamaica where she worked as a midwife from 1980 to 1983. There, she helped women in her community when they needed it most as they raised their newborns. However, she knew that being a midwife in Jamaica often led to limited career growth, so she focused on school to become a Registered Nurse. She soon moved into Public Health and played a vital role in her local community where she trained students through preceptorship courses.
Her move to Canada in 2010 was driven by a love for family. With a son and daughter of her own, Sandra saw opportunities in Canada that she didn’t have for them back home. Upon arriving in Canada, she applied to the College of Nurses of Ontario and completed their International Educated Nurse program. She was now able to practice in Toronto and return to her love of helping mothers and babies. She applied to VHA with a dream of working in our child and family specialization. She knew this was her calling in life.
Soon after joining VHA, Sandra took on a young client — a baby with complex needs — whose care has since defined her career and grown into something rare: a bond between people who were simply meant to find each other.
Throughout the years with the family, Sandra has seen this baby boy grow into the young man he is today. She has experienced the joys and hardships of raising a child with complex medical needs, alongside mom Margarita and dad Romulo. She shares so many memories with the family.
Sandra’s professionalism and experience in nursing is seen through her keen clinical observation and her ability to build trust with her client and his family. Sandra remembers, during a phase of care where her client was experiencing tactile seizures, she was able to notice a distinct pattern. “I noticed that when you touch him in most places, he was fine. But you would go to touch his foot, and he would go into seizures,” Sandra recalls. “It was always his socks.”
She shared this with the parents and dad confirmed he had experienced that too. “I remember him saying ‘You know, now that you say that I noticed it too…’” Sandra says. This camaraderie and friendship between the parents and Sandra have built immense trust and credibility in moments where they may otherwise feel lost.
Sandra’s relationship with the family goes above and beyond. She often feels like Margarita and Romulo trust her completely. Sometimes, when their other children are not feeling well, they will ask Sandra for her advice. She gives it, suggests ways to help, and is often spot on in her observations and advice.
“Sandra is a beacon of warmth.”
When Sandra visits, her positivity and warmth are infectious to all around her. Her presence lights up the room as soon as she walks in. In moments where her client’s parents can feel isolated, Sandra brings smiles and laughter.
“When Sandra feeds our son, as part of his visual therapy, we put on special childrens songs. We love the fact that she knows every single song. She will literally sing through the whole thing. And he will just be jamming and dancing. She will know when he doesn’t want a song when he makes a certain sound and then she moves onto the next one. And she’ll know that song too,” Margarita shares, as she dances in her seat like her son would do.
Music is especially important in their household – Romulo is actually a professional opera singer! Sandra’s therapeutic incorporation of music makes her care extra special. “Anyone else would feel intimidated. Sandra couldn’t care less that I’m a professional singer! She’s not shy at all,” dad laughs. “You know, we once had this music therapist find out that I’m a professional and they got very nervous. But for Sandra, it’s all about client-based care. She puts the needs of my son – what makes him happy or distracted – first. She’ll go above and beyond.”
Sandra’s warmth helps her radiate joy in her client’s day-to-day, but it also provides a sense of comfort in moments of fear and uncertainty. Both Sandra and her client’s parents recall a moment when her client was admitted to the ICU in critical care for seizures.
“That moment was a miracle, you know,” Margarita acknowledges, “He had a 6-hour status in the ICU, and we had to preplan his funeral. He was there for three days, in excruciating pain. I remember him screaming at the top of his lungs. And that’s when she came. As soon as she walked in, it was like a light switch.”
“I came into the hospital and told the staff that I was his nurse, and I would like to see him. I asked permission and they let me in to the ICU,” Sandra recalls. “As I walked in, I heard that they were preparing for the worst. It was a scary time. As I stepped into the room, both my client and his dad were there.” During that time, Sandra was a beacon of warmth, in an otherwise scary environment, as she tried to keep a positive attitude. She called out to her client, greeting him with a friendly hello. “As soon as he heard my voice, I could see he immediately smiled,” she says.
We can hear pride, happiness, and relief in Sandra’s voice as she revisits this story.
Sandra recalls that dad Romulo was shocked, saying, “Oh my god, he hasn’t done that since we got here!” Sandra was also taken aback; she called out to her client again and again just to be sure. Each time Sandra called out to him, it brought another smile to his face. Each smile acted as its own beacon of warmth and hope amongst the otherwise tense atmosphere of the hospital. Romulo couldn’t believe it and took a picture to send to his wife Margarita. Within seconds, Margarita called back in happy tears. It’s clear she was meant to be in the lives of this family.
“Sandra is a beacon of compassion.”
Sandra is a nurse who goes above and beyond her duties to provide care. She is compassionate and has a deep awareness of what her client’s family is going through. Her actions reflect an inherent kindness and empathy.
“You know, being a medically complex family is completely another world. We live completely isolated, we are sleep deprived to the point where our mental, physical and spiritual health is depleted. To live your life in moments where you do not know if this is the last time you see your son again on the daily brings a completely different dynamic to the family,” Romulo begins to explain. “And to have a professional like Sandra that understands what your family is going through is remarkable. She understands that when you are a family who has a child with an extraordinary disease, the whole family goes through unprecedented circumstances daily. Sandra knows that if we don’t have nursing one day, it’s not like a hospital that another nurse will just pick up. It means that my wife won’t sleep, or that I won’t sleep or go to work that day or those two or three days.”
On many occasions, with no one asking, Sandra has put the needs of her client’s family first. “To Sandra this is not just a job, it’s a vocation,” Romulo says. She travels over two hours each way on the bus to provide care. If her shift is finished, but her client still needs care, she will not leave until his care is complete. She has delayed vacations, changed personal plans with family visiting from overseas, worked overtime, cancelled well-deserved rest time, without much notice because their care has fallen through the last minute. Sandra knows how it is going to look in their home with no nursing support.
“Who does that? There is no other nurse out there that does that,” Romulo explains through heartfelt tears. “There is no money and no recognition in the world that could even live up to that kind of commitment. Any kind of help or good fortune we get, the only person I can ever think of giving it to is Sandra. Whether it’s recognition, a paid vacation, or winning the lottery tomorrow… I would give it all to her and it still wouldn’t be enough for what she has done for us. She deserves the world.”
“Sandra has transcended her role as a head nurse. She has truly become a beloved member of our family.”
This story was written by VHA Home HealthCare and submitted as an entry for the Hospital News 2026 Nursing Hero Awards