We join our colleagues and friends at Good Shepherd Health System in Longview, Tex. in mourning the loss of Gail Sandidge, a nurse who was stabbed to death on Tuesday at the Good Shepherd Health System Ambulatory Surgery Center.
Another nurse and three visitors were also injured, one seriously, in the attack.
Ms. Sandidge, RN, who was married and the mother of two daughters, was stabbed by the son of a patient about 7 AM on Tuesday.
The 1974 Henderson ISD valedictorian, who put herself through school at Baylor University before beginning work for Good Shepherd Health System, was a caregiver to her very core, friends and family said. There was never a doubt in her mind that she wanted to be a nurse.
Ms. Sandidge was described at a news conference by Good Shepherd System CEO Steve Altmiller as a “seamstress, a Sunday school teacher of 2-year-olds … a mother, a grandmother, a healer, a trainer, a mentor, a nurturer… Nurses are protectors by nature, and Gail, she fit that profile. She was protecting her patients in an act of courage today, and in so doing, she lost her life.”
“We’ve seen heroes just doing their jobs.”
Longview News-Journal