Influential patient gives nurses a chance of a lifetime at Country Thunder

Recently, a 25-year-old emergency room nurse at Northwestern Medicine-McHenry Hospital said she was just doing her job, caring for a patient who came in not feeling too well, and she was thanked in a very unexpected way.

Alexa Duenas of Woodstock, who has worked at the hospital for three years, said she cared for Bruce Williams, helping him with an annoying cough.

In the roughly four hours they spent together, they chatted about where they grew up, nursing school, her winning the nurse Rookie of the Year Award and her upcoming wedding. She also told Williams, who is from Nashville, Tennessee, that she hoped to go to Nashville for her bachelorette party.

She asked Williams if he had ever met any famous people in Nashville – specifically Morgan Wallen, a country musician she once drove four hours one way to see perform in concert.

He then asked her if she was going to Country Thunder in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, the following day and if she was going to see Wallen’s concert, to which she replied enthusiastically, “That is the only reason why I’m going … to see him.”

She was taken aback that Williams knew about Country Thunder and that he randomly asked her about Wallen.

“I asked him how he knew about Country Thunder,” she said. “He began to tell me he travels all around the world for Country Thunder because he is their emcee.”

Then, Williams asked “what I would think about VIP access to Country Thunder and said that he wanted to give me VIP access. I began to tell him ‘no,’ he did not need to do that, and he said, ‘I want to do this, you have been so kind to me and have taken such good care of me.’ I began to get teary-eyed and thanked him so much and told him how much I appreciate it.”

Williams, who also provided VIP passes for two of her nurse friends, said in a phone interview from his home in Nashville that he made the offer simply because “she was an angel.”

At the concert the next day, Duenas was up close with Wallen, at the edge of the catwalk he danced and sang on. She even touched his boot several times. She and her friends had access to a catering area and met another adored country singer, Bailey Zimmerman.

“The three of us were in awe. We couldn’t believe it. We were practically in tears,” Duenas said. “The VIP section was unbelievable.”

Jessica Ochoa, 23, of Crystal Lake works with Duenas and attended the concert with her.

Ochoa, who discharged Williams from the ER that day, said that week in the ER was one of the busiest she had ever worked, so Williams’ impromptu actions were greatly appreciated.

“I was definitely very grateful for his kindness,” Ochoa said.

Williams is half of “Williams and Ree” (Ree being Terry Ree), musicians and a comedic duo performing together for the last 50 years.

Williams met Troy Vollhoffer, the founder of Country Thunder in Canada about 40 years ago, and he and Ree have traveled with Country Thunder for about 15 years, performing and emceeing shows.

Providing VIP access to Duenas and her friends was just one thing he said he could do to let Duenas know he appreciated her help and kindness.

“I was feeling pretty terrible,” Williams said of when he arrived at the hospital on July 22. “I went in there and within 15 minutes she had me breathing better. She was just an angel. [Getting her VIP access] was just something in my wheelhouse that I could do.”

The chance meeting between Duenas and Williams not only played out to be one of Duenas’ most memorable evenings, but Duenas and her nurse friends ended up being in the right place at the right time to help a young girl at the concert experiencing a medical crisis.

“There was definitely destiny there,” Williams said.

But, fate didn’t end there.

Brea Jereb, 24, formerly of Lake in the Hills, also went to the concert with Duenas. Today, Jereb works as a nurse in Springfield with intentions of returning to McHenry County. At the concert, she made a connection with one of Williams’ friends. This friend’s husband works in human resources at Northwestern Medicine. The woman immediately texted her husband to let him know she met a nurse who wants a job back in McHenry County, Jereb said.

“They kind of networked backstage, and it was fantastic,” Williams said.

In this time of the pandemic, when there is much darkness and negativity in the world, where nurses and emergency medical personnel – among many others – are under attack in jobs that they chose because they want to help people, this was a nice turn of events, the nurses said.

According to a letter published in the American Hospitals Association in March urging the U.S. Department of Justice to implement federal laws to better protect health care workers, “violence against hospital employees has markedly increased” since the onset of the pandemic. “There is no sign it is receding. Studies indicate that 44% of nurses report experiencing physical violence and 68% report experiencing verbal abuse during the pandemic,” according to the letter.

The letter, asking for same protections as airline workers have been given, listed nationwide news reports as examples. A patient in a Georgia hospital grabbed a nurse by the wrist and kicked her in the ribs. A nurse in South Dakota was thrown against a wall and bitten by a patient; and a medical student in New York who came from Thailand was called “China virus,” kicked and dragged to the ground and left bleeding and bruised, according to the letter.

In the McHenry County courthouse, there are several cases involving charges of verbal and physical assaults of nurses and other medical personnel by patients.

An Algonquin woman is charged with two Class 3 felonies for kicking a nurse in the stomach knowing the nurse was 25 weeks pregnant, according to court documents. If convicted, this defendant could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined $25,000. The charges also are probationable.

Jereb, an operating room nurse, said nurses often are the first in line when it comes to patients venting their frustrations. It is difficult because the issues patients are frustrated with are out of the nurse’s control.

Duenas, who began her career as a tech at the hospital in 2018 and became an ER nurse last August, said she loves her job, but times have been “especially” difficult, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Volumes are really high and … you hear a lot of negative comments ... and for [Williams] to do this is the most meaningful thing,” she said. “We hear so many negatives, it is so nice when we hear a positive. This is why I’m here, why I’m doing this. When people are negative, it breaks you down. [It’s like] I’m doing everything I can. I don’t know what else I can do.”

Williams said he was thinking about how well he was cared for and the kindness he was shown and thought, “Gosh, you guys are angels. How can people be brutalizing you day after day, and you still can be an angel?’ [Duenas] is really an angel, and the entire staff there, they just took such care of me and propped me back up so I can go do my job.”