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Not Your Typical Prom Story
When you think back to your high school prom, what’s the memory that immediately pops into your head? The dancing? The dinner? Your date?
Alex Venuti, a senior at BFA St. Albans, can truly say he had a unique experience at his prom this year: he attended his senior prom at Northwestern Medical Center.
Unusual Prom Preparations
On May 12th, while sitting quietly in class, Alex’s started to feel pain in his back. His pain rapidly increased, to the point where it was continuous and he had trouble breathing.
Unfortunately for Alex, he knew what was happening. Six months earlier, he’d felt the same kind of unbearable pain. Alex knew that his lung was collapsing.
This time, Alex was able to keep himself calm and focus on breathing as he sought help from the school nurse, and then from his physician, Dr. Fred Holmes. When a chest X-ray at Northwestern Medical Center helped confirm the diagnosis, Alex wasn’t surprised.
Dr. Mike Kennedy, a local General Surgeon, explains that “blebs” or blisters on the surface of the lung sometimes pop, and leak air into the space between the chest wall and the lung, creating pressure. Sometimes, this “spontaneous pneumothorax” (lung collapse), heals on its own. In more severe cases, like Alex’s, a chest tube is inserted to remove the excess air and allow the lung to re-expand.
The first time Alex experienced a lung collapse, it healed very quickly. This time, however, Alex didn’t heal as quickly as he would have liked—especially with prom only days away.
On Saturday, May 15th—the day of the prom— everyone was anxiously awaiting Dr. Kennedy’s examination of Alex. Had his lung healed enough to go home? Would he make it to prom that night?
In the morning, Alex had hope as the tube was removed from his chest. However, when the tube came out, there were indications his lung was going to collapse again. A waiting game had begun.
After several hours of watching, waiting, and re-examining, Dr. Kennedy decided that although the chest tube didn’t need to be reinserted, Alex would not be able to be discharged to attend his prom.
Nurses With a Plan
The nurses on NMC’s Medical/Surgical Unit and other staff in the hospital easily connected to Alex’s happy and excitable demeanor. Even as a patient, he was quick with a smile, and fun to talk to.
Bobbie Billado, RN, Med/Surg Charge Nurse at NMC, joked, “We were all trying to figure out who could go with him if he were discharged in time. He was sweet.”
As time went on, and it looked less and less likely that Alex would be discharged in time, the nurses hatched a plan. “It just came about that, why don’t we just do it here?,” said Bobbie.
The nurses, with the help of NMC’s Concierge, Johanna Crane Godin, worked their magic to create a prom for Alex, NMC style. Without his knowledge, they transformed an available patient room into “the Star Ballroom,” with the help of 30 star shaped balloons (left over from the hospital’s annual Hospital Week celebration), some nice dishes the hospital keeps on hand for special occasions and banquets, and some creative decorating.
Alex’s parents got involved too—arranging for his tuxedo to be brought to the hospital, and helping get a special message to Alex’s girlfriend, Danielle Clancy, to bring her prom gown afterall. Danielle is a student at Oxbow High School in Bradford, Vermont, and was traveling to visit Alex on Saturday.
Finally, Alex was let in on the surprise. “I walked in and I saw it,” he said, his face lighting up with the memory. “I was really happy. It was something just so special, something memorable.”
 Alex said the nurses thought of everything: a special dinner, a backdrop for picture taking, decorations, music, his special friends.
There was music at their prom, so… was there dancing? “I thought about it,” grinned Alex, visibly a little disappointed. “But, after being stuck in bed for days, just getting up was tiring.”
Instead, he and Danielle changed back into more comfortable clothes, and relaxed together in front of a movie.
Satisfaction All Around
The nurses and other staff at NMC may have been just as excited to help put on this prom as Alex and Danielle were to have their special event.
Bobbie explains that sometimes in their jobs as nurses, there are things they do for patients that really have little to do with their health. “It’s the important things,” she says. “It’s just what we do. It makes them feel better, and it makes them feel like we appreciate them as much as they appreciate us. It would just be horrible if we didn’t do this for them.”
That appreciation was clear in the gleam in Alex’s eyes as he described the special event, and in Danielle’s enthusiastic description of their memorable prom. “The fact that the nurses would take that much time and energy is absolutely indescribable,” said Danielle. “We really appreciate everything that was done to pull together the hospital prom. It was really an enjoyable experience for a situation that could have been a real bummer. It will be a memory I will be sharing with people for a very long time—thank you Northwestern Medical Center!”
A Promising Future
For now, Alex is working on recovering from his most recent lung collapse—he expects his recovery will take about a month before he’s back to normal. His tall, thin frame leave him predisposed to future collapses, but he’s moving forward with a positive spirit. His mother, Melanie Venuti, agrees with Alex’s direction. “There’s actually not a lot you can do,” she said. “You need to live your life and hope it doesn’t happen again."
In the meantime, Alex’s track season and the end of his final year playing trombone in the BFA band were cut short due to his recovery, but he’s not letting that get him down. Instead, Alex has much to look forward to. He’s currently finishing up his senior year at BFA, and has just learned that he will be this year’s Valedictorian.
His lungs will be back in action in time for him to join Joe Levesque’s Big Band for a summer-long gig on the Spirit of Ethan Allen III cruise boat out of Burlington.
And, he’s getting ready to head off to college in the fall. Alex will be heading to the University of Rochester, where he plans to double major in math and physics, and also spend some time studying music. “I don’t know what I want to do with it,” says Alex excitedly. “I just want to keep learning and learning!”
Though Alex doesn’t hasn’t quite put the finishing touches on his commencement speech yet, he grins as he explains his introduction: “I might open with some witty remark about how I hope I have enough breath to make it through the speech!”
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