Tampa ER nurse to be honored for helping comfort young patients after son's death

TAMPA, Fla. - As the Tampa Bay Lightning face off against the New York Rangers on Thursday, the organization will recognize two health care workers who are creating comfort for their youngest patients. 

At AdventHealth Tampa, four times a year, you’ll find volunteers carefully cutting cozy and colorful cloth, tying the pieces together to create bright blankets, which bear memory to a boy named Blake.

Blake, was Rose Trier’s boy. 

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Trier has been a pediatric ER nurse for 25 years. Throughout her career, she’s comforted countless children who’ve come through the doors at AdventHealth Tampa.

Even when she finished a shift, her caretaker cap never truly came off.

At home, her son Blake, who lived with cerebral palsy, needed round-the-clock care, coupled with seemingly endless hospital trips.

"Nothing prepares you to be the parent of a special needs child in the hospital. It’s humbling," she said. "It gives you raw emotion about, wow, ‘is that test going to be okay?’ ‘Is my child going to make it through the hospital stay’, ‘are they going to come home after this hospital stay?’"

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While in those hospital stays, Trier saw how blankets wrapped comfort around Blake.

"He was not verbal like we are. But he spoke with his eyes. You could know what he was thinking with his eyes. And whenever he got a blanket, he would just light up. So it was really an awesome thing," she said.

Blake passed away on December 8, 2022 at the age of 25. 

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Not long after, "Blake’s Blankets" was born. And, Trier found healing in hand making these gifts and delivering them to hundreds of young patients.

"We give them to the children that are admitted, transferred. If somebody needs something to cuddle, because there's nothing like comfort with something soft like this blanket, when you're scared and not certain about what's going to happen," she said.

And in those moments, Trier again sees the same light she saw in her son’s eyes.

"They get this blanket, and they sit there and hold it while they're having stuff done. So it's bringing them comfort and that makes me happy," she said.

Trier's colleague and fellow AdventHealth nurse, Sandra Burnetter, will be recognized at the Lightning game as "Goal Getters" in the community. Trier is receiving a jersey in Blake’s honor with his favorite number, 33. 

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