Riding high: Nurse gives longtime patient memorable virtual reality experience

Apr. 11—While everyone in the room watched her, Aggie Morgan was flying high this week thanks to a virtual reality experience set up by her oncology nurse.

Headset on, the 74-year-old Kasota woman felt like she was suspended in a hot air balloon looking down at the Rio Grande in Texas. Aggie and her husband, John, are familiar with the area from vacationing down in Texas during the winter.

Aggie had long wanted to ride in a hot air balloon, which would've been her latest adventure after previously skydiving, scuba diving and exploring the Costa Rican jungle. Each time she and her friends tried to get up in a balloon over the years, though, weather foiled their plans.

Diagnosed with multiple myeloma about 10 years ago, she'd shared her disappointment about the cancellations with her oncology nurses at Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato. She'd grown close to them through years of cancer treatment, trading stories and laughs back and forth to pass otherwise difficult times.

As her condition grew increasingly worse this year, it became clear she wouldn't get that hot air balloon ride. One of her nurses, Kerry Olson, recently hatched a plan to bring her daughter, Klaire, 13, in to set up the virtual balloon ride instead.

It came together during one of Aggie's final visits to the hospital in late March before she transitioned into hospice care.

The adventurous Aggie was up for the idea, responding with a smile, a laugh and a "wow" when asked what her reaction was.

"That was just a wonderful gift," she said. "A wonderful wrap-up."

It was also the latest example of how her oncology team came to mean so much more to her over the years.

"It's not just the fact they're a friendly smile when you walk in," she said. "It's the idea that they're people. They're not just treatment personnel, they're family."

This week, Aggie, Kerry and Klaire came together again to share their experience. It might've been the last time they see each other, and Kerry and Klaire loaded up another hot air balloon experience into the headset for the occasion.

Kerry first mentioned her daughter's virtual reality headset to Aggie during an appointment when she showed her what a flight simulation looked like on a cellphone. Aggie needed to be hospitalized shortly after, making Kerry think she missed her chance to give her the virtual reality experience.

"I was really scared I wasn't going to see her again," Kerry said. "I was kind of mad at myself that I didn't learn how to use the thing that weekend after I told her about it."

Thankfully, Aggie soon got out of the hospital and came in for an appointment on March 30. Kerry was thrilled to see her, and her co-worker encouraged her to call Klaire right away to bring in the headset.

"It meant a lot to me to try to give Aggie something she wasn't able to do — go on that hot air balloon," Kerry said. "I just wanted to give her a piece of that."

Klaire, a seventh-grader at Prairie Winds, said she could tell how much it meant to Aggie.

"She looked so happy when she was doing it, and it felt amazing to make her day so much better," she said.

During that first balloon ride, Aggie was wowed by all the palm tree tops she could see looking down from the basket. This week, for her second time under the headset, she reacted in awe to seeing the Rio Grande from above.

"This is gorgeous," she said. "Oh my goodness."

There's a special relationship between oncology care workers and patients. As Kerry put it, the patients can "really enjoy us, but they don't like coming to see us."

Coming to see them, after all, means the patient needs treatment for a serious health condition. Aggie had been coming to Mayo in Mankato long enough to get to know Kerry and all the other nurses in the unit well, hearing the latest on their families and lives.

Kerry has worked in the field for 17 years, seeing many patients go through some of their hardest days. But she said she loves the work, seeing it as doing her part to make their treatments more tolerable.

Aggie, she added, has always been such a positive person through it all.

When Aggie would return to Minnesota each spring, coming back to Kerry and the other oncology nurses felt like returning to family.

"There's no other way to describe," she said. "You've got family."

She and Kerry teared up while reflecting on all the time they spent together over the last decade.

"I wasn't going to cry today, Aggie," Kerry told her.

"I don't want to be the only one," Aggie responded.

Seeing Aggie enjoy the balloon rides, Kerry said, will be lasting memories of her longtime patient turned friend.

"That's the hard thing," she said, referring to it being possibly the last time they get together. "If this is the last I see her, I have the best memory of her."

Follow Brian Arola @BrianArola