Nurse and patient switch roles nearly 30 years later

MILWAUKEE -- Not long ago, at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, nurse Lynn Bartos took a long, hard look back on her career. After 44 years of sacrifice and devotion, she wondered if it was worth it.

"I invested a lot of myself into being a really good nurse. And did it really make a difference?"

She got her answer when she became the patient.

Lynn has Rheumatoid arthritis. Last summer, during one of her doctor's visits, she was treated by a new nurse named Nicole Krahn -- who seemed strangely familiar.

"Just something on her face and her eyes, I thought, I knew who she was." Lynn said she still gets goosebumps when she thinks about it.

She first met Nicole 28 years earlier, back when they both shared the cover of Children's Nurse Magazine. It was an article about Lynn and the special relationship she had with Nicole, her patient at the time.

"She was a very lovable little girl."

Nicole had a life-threatening intestinal problem, and Lynn -- who Nicole used to call "Sweet Lynnie" -- spent years nursing her back to health.

But that was then.

"Nicole was this little girl that I took care of, and now she's taking such good care of me," Lynn said.

Nicole says she doesn't remember much from those days. But here's what's interesting -- she also doesn't remember a time when she didn't want to be a nurse.

"Oh yeah, I always wanted to help people. I don't know if I really just liked nurses, I just knew I always wanted to be one."

For as long as she can remember, she always wanted to be one. Some might say that's a coincidence. But to Lynn, it's a godsend.

"This is just what I needed. It is definitely a gift, because now I know for 44 years, I made a difference in people's lives."

Forty-four years -- and maybe generations to come.

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