{"id":22778,"date":"2026-09-04T15:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T19:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=22778"},"modified":"2026-09-04T15:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T19:59:13","slug":"dying-womans-final-wish-was-to-be-baptized-3-icu-nurses-made-sure-it-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2026\/09\/dying-womans-final-wish-was-to-be-baptized-3-icu-nurses-made-sure-it-happened.html","title":{"rendered":"Dying Woman’s Final Wish Was to Be Baptized \u2014 3 ICU Nurses Made Sure It Happened"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Huntsville Hospital Health<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With only days left to live, 74-year-old Jeannie Guffey had one final wish: She wanted to be baptized.<\/p>\n

But Guffey was confined to an intensive care unit at Huntsville Hospital in Alabama, surrounded by IV poles, monitors and other medical equipment. A traditional baptism seemed nearly impossible.<\/p>\n

Three nurses refused to let that stop them.<\/p>\n

Erin Powers, Kaitlin Swaim and Emily Owens came up with an unconventional plan<\/a> involving a kiddie pool, an electric air pump and even ventilator tubing \u2014 all to make sure Guffey could fulfill her wish.<\/p>\n

Guffey had been diagnosed with lung cancer about a year earlier, and by the time she entered the ICU, her family knew her time was short. Hospice care was approaching, but she still wanted to be baptized.<\/p>\n

The nurses purchased a kiddie pool with their own money and had it delivered to the hospital. Using an air pump provided by Guffey’s family, they inflated the pool inside her hospital room.<\/p>\n

Then came another challenge: filling it.<\/p>\n

The nurses connected the ventilator tubing to the sink to create a makeshift hose and filled the pool with warm water. Hospital staff then carefully used a ceiling lift to lower Guffey into the water.<\/p>\n

Her adult son performed the baptism as her family and caregivers looked on.<\/p>\n

“It was just a really sweet, emotional moment,” Guffey’s daughter-in-law, Carol Guffey, recalled in a story published by Huntsville Hospital. “The nurses went above and beyond to make this happen at the 11th hour when we were running out of options.”<\/p>\n

“Seeing her baptized, it was like the weight of the world was lifted off our shoulders.”<\/p>\n

The next day, Guffey entered hospice care. Nine days after her baptism, she died on July 17.<\/p>\n

For her family, the timing \u2014 and the determination of the three nurses who happened to be caring for Guffey \u2014 felt like more than a coincidence.<\/p>\n

“That was a total God thing,” Carol said. “And those nurses will be special to us forever.”<\/p>\n

Evangelist Franklin Graham later shared Guffey’s story on social media, praising both her faith and the nurses who helped make her baptism possible.<\/p>\n

“It’s never too late,” Graham wrote. “What an incredible story of faith and Godly determination.”<\/p>\n

Guffey’s baptism may not have taken place inside a church or even a traditional baptistry. Instead, it happened in an ICU room, inside a kiddie pool assembled by three nurses determined to honor a dying patient’s final request.<\/p>\n

For Guffey and her family, that was more than enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With only days left to live, 74-year-old Jeannie Guffey had one final wish: She wanted to be baptized. But Guffey was confined to an intensive care unit at Huntsville Hospital in Alabama, surrounded by IV poles, monitors and other medical equipment. A traditional baptism seemed nearly impossible. Three nurses refused to let that stop them.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":22781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages"],"yoast_head":"\nDying Woman's Final Wish Was to Be Baptized \u2014 3 ICU Nurses Made Sure It Happened<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Three Alabama ICU nurses went above and beyond to fulfill a dying 74-year-old woman's final wish to be baptized before hospice.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2026\/09\/dying-womans-final-wish-was-to-be-baptized-3-icu-nurses-made-sure-it-happened.html\" 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