The Angel at 5 North
Reported by Erik Smith
Web produced by Christiana Ciolac

Carmen Busch at work at Troy Beaumont Hospital. Video

She has been called "An angel on loan from God." Her domain? The halls of 5 North, the Oncology Unit of Troy's Beaumont Hospital.

She came here 22 years ago, a young nurse with experience in pediatric and coronary care, not cancer care. She came, in fact, before there was a major cancer treatment center here, but there was never any doubt in her mind. Carmen Busch just believed when she was a little girl she would grow up to be a nurse some day.

Let's go back to your childhood. Did you always want to be a nurse?

"Yep. From the time I was 12. My brother got hurt, a flying saucer hit him in the mouth, you know, not an alien kind, but he came home with his teeth in his hand. My mother promptly fainted. We had to take care of my mother and a neighbor and I got my brother to the hospital, and I thought, 'Wow. I can do something that most people can't do.' That's when it started."

Carmen wanted to be a nurse since she was 12-years-old.

Raised in Detroit, Carmen graduated from the Toledo Hospital School of Nursing. She went to work at the U of M and then moved onto Henry Ford, Holy Cross and finally to Beaumont.

In the meantime, she got married, started raising two sons, and then found out one day she had cancer. It was a cancer, one I can't even pronounce, but the nurse, the wife, the mother knew what she was in for.

"In my case, my children were still young, and my prognosis was not good at all. Once you get past the fact that you are facing your mortality, every day is special," Carmen said.

Her first grandchild

She endured the megadose chemo, the hair loss, the relentless fatigue, and eventually returned to Troy Beaumont, cancer free. Carmen went back to her patients that she knew were facing the same uncertainties, but her grace period only lasted five years. Cancer came to call again. and she was a patient once more.

"The first time, you go into the battle very courageously saying, 'I can do this. I'm going to win.' When it comes back, it's a whole different ballgame and it's harder to convince yourself that you can get through this. Of course, myself being a nurse, and it came back in my lung, and my first reaction was, 'Well, that's it. That's it. I am not going to make it this time."

With part of her lung gone, another year of punishing chemotherapy behind her, Carmen was once again anxiously preparing to return to her post in the halls of 5 North when almost incredibly, for a third time, cancer struck again.

Why didn't you quit?

"Well, probably that time maybe more my husband than anything else, because he just could not accept the fact that maybe I was going to die."

He wouldn't let you quit?

"No."

Carmen's third war with cancer ended eight years ago. The trademark smile rarely ever leaves her countenance these days.

Carmen has battled cancer three times.

As a three-time cancer survivor, she has lived to watch her sons grow up. She has lived to treasure the face of a first grandchild. She has lived to celebrate 32 years of marriage to her husband, Dennis. She has lived, too, for the countless patients of Troy Beaumont, who must believe in their hearts that she really is the angel of 5 North on loan from God.

Carmen and her family

"When you face what I faced, you look at it like a gift. Every day that you get is a gift. That's my message to everyone. Celebrate life every day, because I truly a gift to be treasured. Celebrate life."

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