Hoda Kotb reflects on her challenging moment at the hospital with her three-year-old daughter. The 58-year-old television star remembers "begging" nurses to let her bathe her recently hospitalized daughter, Hope. In February, Kotb, who is also the mother of six-year-old Haley Joy, took a few weeks off from 'Today' to be with Hope as she was confined in the intensive care unit.
"I remember I was there, and I asked for a bath," Kotb said on Monday's episode of 'Today' show. "I wanted to give her a bath and they could only sponge her and I said, 'Please, I’m begging you, I just want a bath for my child.'" Kotb shared her poignant story with co-host Jenna Bush Hager while honoring National Nurses Week.
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What is National Nurses Week?
Every year, National Nurses Week begins on May 6 and ends on May 12, which is Florence Nightingale's birthday. The American Nurses Association (ANA) has endorsed and advocated for the nursing profession since 1896. Each of the ANA's state and territory nurse associations supports the field of nursing at the state and regional levels. On these dates, each holds a celebration to honor the work that nurses and healthcare contribute to the community.
'It was beautiful'
While celebrating National Nurses Week, Hoda Kotb remembered her experience with nurses while at the hospital and claimed that the hospital staff kindly granted her request. "And I remember they got this little plastic thing, and they put it in the shower and put Hope in it and I remembered, like, that tiny thing, but it was everything at the time," the media star recounted. "It was beautiful."
"They knew at that moment," the mother of two added, referring to the nurse who consoled her. "Because a lot of what they do isn’t about giving the IV and the needles and the stuff and the tests and all those things. It’s more than that. It’s everything that they do."
What happened to Hope?
Hope's illness has not been publicized but it required Kotb to take a few weeks off from 'Today' in February to care for her child in the ICU. However, the author of 'I Really Needed This Today' earlier described the incident as "really scary." However, Kotb is pleased to report that Hope is "vibrant and brilliant," exclaiming that she is "over the moon" to have her youngest back at home. "I'm over the moon that she’s home," she stated. "And I can’t believe how amazing people are. Like, that’s the thing I learned through all this; the nurses who stood by her all the way, the nurses who checked on her constantly, the doctors who came in, the people who took care of us. And I felt like we were held."