Being a Defender of Childhood runs three generations deep for Lezlie Brown-Zoller, her daughter Meghen Reahm and her granddaughter Erika Hertz.
While Lezlie went through nurse training, her younger brother had surgery at CHOC. Lezlie found herself visiting CHOC during her brother’s stay. She enjoyed the enthusiasm and passion the nurses displayed about their jobs. While speaking with a nurse, they encouraged Lezlie to apply to CHOC after she graduated.
Lezlie did just that and joined CHOC in 1973 – with an employee number in the single digits. She worked on many floors at the hospital. She was a relief charge nurse in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and the first charge nurse in the medical short stay unit. She opened a new health center in 1994 and became an inpatient director. She also did infection prevention.
Though Lezlie was ready to retire in 2014, a therapy called Healing Touch kept her connected to CHOC.
Healing Touch is an energy therapy wherein practitioners consciously use their hands in a heart-centered and intentional way to support and facilitate physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health. Lezlie had been practicing the therapy for sometime and was asked to offer the therapy during CHOC’s Nurses’ Week festivities one year. Lezlie continued to offer Healing Touch up until the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fast forward a few years and Lezlie has joined CHOC’s spiritual care department as a spiritual wellness practitioner – five decades after first starting at CHOC. Her role includes leading the Healing Touch Program, providing spiritual counsel, meditation, journaling and serving as an end-of-life doula.
For Lezlie, dedicating her talents to CHOC was simple. “CHOC believes in their people. They believe in me enough that they’re going to give me the latitude to create this position, and the wings to fly,” says Lezlie.
Spreading compassion to the next generations
Lezlie not only has an impact on employees and the patients and families she provides care for but also on her daughter and granddaughter.
“CHOC was always a regular household name growing up,” says Meghen, Lezlie’s daughter, when discussing why she decided to become a nurse at CHOC.
Thinking back to her first act of caring for others, Meghen recalls she was in first grade when she discovered an injured grasshopper that she tried to mend back to health. At the time, she was unsure if she should become a veterinarian.
“The turning point for me was that my mom was in a horrible accident when I was in high school and near death,” says Meghen.
Lezlie had to spend time in the intensive care unit (ICU) and endured weeks-long rehabilitation. Lezlie, being a nurse herself, was determined to push through and was able to go home, with the aid of a home health nurse.
“I was absolutely intrigued by not only the care she received in the ICU, but I loved helping care for her,” Meghen says about helping her mother recover.
After spending time in her mom’s nurse’s shadow, Meghen knew this was her calling.
Meghen has been at CHOC for 22 years and recently accepted the position of dayshift nursing supervisor.
“We have, honest to God, some of the best people here – nurses, doctors and staff,” says Meghen about members of CHOC’s mighty brigade.
“Regardless of what department one may be in, we all live and breathe the same CHOC culture and we all live the same mission,” says Meghen.
Like daughter, like mother and grandmother
Like Meghen, following in the footsteps of her mother, Meghen’s daughter, too, has a passion for defending childhood.
Erika Hertz, patient transporter at CHOC is the newest member of the family to continue the legacy of both her mother and grandmother.
She joined CHOC in July 2022 and is currently in her second year at Cal State Fullerton. She was one of the 40 applicants among a total of 2,500 hopefuls who got into CSUF’s nursing program.
Erika is thrilled to continue the legacy of both her mother and grandmother and CHOC’s mission to nurture, advance and protect the health and well-being of children.
And hearing how highly people speak of both her mother and grandmother is one of Erika’s inspirations for becoming a nurse.
“I love kids and I love my job at CHOC,” she says.
