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Nurses of the Week: St. Louis Mercy Hospital Nurses Donate Lottery Winnings to Colleagues in Need

Our Nurses of the Week are a group of 126 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurses at Mercy Children’s Hospital St. Louis in Missouri who pooled their money to buy a lottery ticket. Their story went viral last week when they won $10,000 and instead of each being about $50 richer, decided to use the money to help other Mercy coworkers who’d fallen on difficult times.

These nurses had no idea how much of an impact their purchase would make, but they knew they needed to do something generous with their winnings. They decided to present two checks to nurse Gretchen Post and neonatologist Dr. Casey Orellana. Post’s son died by suicide the month prior and Orellana’s husband was recently diagnosed with stage 4 sarcoma cancer.

Playing the lottery is a fun tradition for these nurses whose work can often be stressful. As last month’s jackpot grew to $1.6 billion, Stephanie Brinkman, the lottery pool organizer, stayed up late to watch the results come in. Soon her phone was lighting up with calls and messages from her colleagues. They had a winning ticket.

Brinkman tells ABCNews.Go.com, “We thought right away that this [money] wasn’t going to make us or break us and it was money we didn’t have before. We needed to help somebody…We have a very strong bond and I think this just goes to show that we’re always here for each other, no matter what. We hope stories like this encourage others to spread kindness and love.”

To learn more about the NICU nurses from Mercy Children’s Hospital St. Louis who donated their lottery winnings to their colleagues in need, visit here.

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