It wasn’t the first time Hanna Johnson had walked the sixth-floor corridors of Boston Children’s Hospital with its familiar fluorescent lighting, Disney characters on the walls and blue floors.
But this time it was different: she wasn’t the patient. He was one of the people who looked after the patients.
Johnson was diagnosed with leukemia at age 16.
I knew something was wrong with him. She didn’t feel like herself and had problems like petechiae or small spots of blood under the skin. But the cancer diagnosis was shocking.
“I definitely think the days after that were a blur. I don’t really remember probably the next week after that because I was sent to the sixth floor straight from the ER for about a month,” Johnson said. “It was like they were stretching you, but they’re saving your life. So you have to.”
Five years after remission, she was selected for the Flynn Foundation Oncology Nursing Fellowship over the summer. In an eight-week fellowship program, Johnson, now a senior at Emmanuel College, worked on different oncology-focused floors of the hospital, working alongside some of the same nurses who cared for her.
Lauren Lewis, an inpatient oncology nurse navigator, was one of Johnson’s first nurses after her diagnosis. Now they walk the halls together.
“I knew she was going to get here. And when I told her this is going to be the worst day of your life, and it’s only going to get better, that’s exactly what I meant,” Lewis said.
Given Johnson’s boisterous and driven personality, Lewis said he predicted Johnson would return one day.
“She’s a very boisterous person. She’s very driven. Even during treatment, she was making friends with her neighbors down the hall, whether they were her age or not, and she always had such a positive attitude even when things weren’t going well,” Lewis said.
“It’s really nice to see her on the other side and feel like, look, I knew you could do it and you did it all by yourself,” Lewis said.
Although it was difficult to adjust to the 12-hour days and work in the same places where Johnson had been treated before, he knew it was worth it to help families and children the way he had before.
“It was very rewarding and very healthy to be back on the sixth floor because it’s different looking at a patient’s bedside when you’re not a patient and you have the power to help these kids and their families and make their day better,” Johnson. he said
Johnson knew he wanted to return to Boston Children’s Hospital and the sixth floor. He chose Emmanuel College in part because of its nursing program and its location in Boston, a place he knew was a “hot spot” for big hospitals.
Hanna Johnson the day she found out she was in remission.Karen Johnson
Her time as a patient at Boston Children’s Hospital was one of the reasons that inspired her to change her plans from being a pediatrician to working in pediatric oncology as a nurse.
The sixth floor felt like home. His nurses became family and he learned the intricacies of their lives. Her next-door neighbor, Ella, who was 2 1/2 years old and also diagnosed with leukemia, became a close friend.
Between Zumba in the resource room and hallways that transform into chaotic, noisy play areas from a game called Spot It, she mostly remembers the positive things about the treatment.
“I don’t remember the bad things because of my nurses. And I think they’ve really shaped an experience for a child diagnosed with cancer,” Johnson said.
She is now 7 years old and in remission, Johnson said.
Johnson now works part-time as a clinical assistant at the hospital, working four 12-hour shifts every six weeks, often working nights and weekends in addition to school.
Upon graduating from Emmanuel College in May, she plans to become a registered nurse and go right back to the sixth floor.
“This is my dream job, basically. I would love to be a nurse helping kids that were in my position and also working alongside the nurses that helped me,” Johnson said.