AdventHealth New Smyrna Beach recognized Anna Gurske with the Starfish Award. This award recognizes team members that are not nurses, but still provide impactful, compassionate patient care.
Gurske is a transporter and was chosen for this award after a patient submitted a personal story about his encounter with her.
“I was having trouble walking and stabilizing my balance from several seizures and a traumatic situation,” said the patient. “I was just dealing with the difficulty of coping with the realization that I couldn’t walk as well as I used to for the first time and it was just settling in.”
Seeing this patient’s struggle, Gurske opened up about her personal story to help put him at ease.
Gurske was once paralyzed from the waist down and could only move a toe. She shared that she finally found some determination and started working toward her recovery once she did. She used a pool to assist her in getting her ability to walk again back, which took her six years.
“It is one of my greatest accomplishments in life,” Gurske said.
Gurske recently joined the AdventHealth New Smyrna Beach team after finally gaining her ability to walk again.
“I thank God for giving me back the ability to walk again and to help others who are sick to get well,” she shared. “Outside of work, I can now walk six miles a day and I try to dance as much as I can.”
“Meeting Anna and hearing her story was a reminder from God,” the patient said. “Her story healed me and encouraged me, that if she was doing His work every day to help move and inspire me and walk every day serving Him, that I can do the same and heal and get well too.”
About AdventHealth New Smyrna Beach
AdventHealth New Smyrna Beach has 112-beds and is one of the six hospitals in Flagler, Lake and Volusia counties that composes the AdventHealth Central Florida Division - North Region. Formerly known as Florida Hospital New Smyrna, the organization’s parent company changed the name of all wholly-owned entities to AdventHealth on Jan. 2, 2019. Based in Altamonte Springs, AdventHealth is a connected system of care. With more than 80,000 team members, AdventHealth is one of the nation’s largest faith-based health care systems with nearly 50 hospitals and hundreds of care sites in nearly a dozen states. With the mission of Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ, AdventHealth New Smyrna Beach provides whole person care to heal the body, mind and spirit. For more information about AdventHealth New Smyrna Beach, visit AdventHealthNewSmyrnaBeach.com.