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Central Georgia critical care nurse spreads kindness through dolls

Erin McArthur started giving out the sock dolls a couple of months ago.

MACON, Ga. — One critical care nurse wasn't even sure at first if she wanted to go into the medical profession, but a couple of years into her career, she is finding ways to bring comfort to folks having a hard time, one sock at a time.

Erin McArthur is an intensive care nurse at the Medical Center, Atrium Health Navicent. She says she likes to surround herself with nice people. It makes sense -- she is beyond her years when it comes to kindness.  

"I'm always finding something on TikTok I can apply to my practice," she said, referring to comforting little dolls made from household items.

It took raiding the supply closet on the third floor, but Erin embraced that social media knowledge and created something for a 91-year-old patient having a tough time.

"Every time she was taken off the ventilator, she went right back on," she said. "I hid it behind my back and I was like, 'Hey, girl, I got a surprise for you,' and she immediately reached out and grabbed it and hugged it."

With that kind of a reaction, how could you not make more?

"I bought 74 pairs of socks in gray, black, and white," she calculated.

Add in a few pounds of cotton, some paint, and glue, and you've got a recipe for helping someone out in what could be one of the worst times in their life.

"I know it can't be easy, especially now during COVID, you can only have visitors from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m., and not all the time everyone's going to be there," McArthur said.

She is the definition of empathy, the ability to understand and share another person's feelings, and Erin knows the dolls aren't family heirlooms by any stretch, but they serve a purpose and can show us kindness comes in all kinds of packages.

Erin has given out a little over a dozen dolls, but she's made 70 to prepare for the future. She is going to have to balance work and school. She wants to become a nurse practitioner.

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