A Pattern of Love: Talented Nurse Makes Patients Feel 'Sew' Special

Susie Mull comes from a long line of seamstresses. Her aunt worked in a shirt factory. Her mother sewed clothes for the family. So, it was only a matter of time before Mull picked up the needle and thread herself. 

“Since I was a little girl, I’ve loved the challenge of seeing a pattern or piece of clothing and wondering, ‘Can I do that?’,” she explains. “And then I get to work. That’s pretty much what happened with this.” 

“This” is the registered nurse’s most recent labor of love: creating accessory bags for patients at Northwest Hospital’s Center for Wound Care. Affectionately referred to as “Susie Bags” by the center’s staff, the bags are distributed to patients for free, giving them an easy, organized—and more enjoyable—way to keep all their take-home wound care materials in one place. 

Each bag also plays a creative part in LifeBridge Health’s commitment to sustainability. “When we do compression wraps on patients, we usually have all this leftover material, which I had realized was a lot like fabric,” Mull recalls. “So, rather than discarding it, I thought ‘Why not take it home and see if I can make something out of it?’” And thus, Susie Bags were born. 

Mull has also used her talents to take on a very special request: creating custom ostomy bag covers for patients who are adapting to the emotional impact of life after colostomy. 

“Ostomies are life-changing, and we try our best to provide dignity for the patient,” says Rebecca Clark, an ostomy nurse at the center. “Having a bag cover makes such a difference. Patients’ faces light up when they know someone has done this for them. They feel empowered, and they feel loved.”

Today, Mull has lost count of how many bags she’s made—“I sit down at night and just go until I’m tired,” she says—but she doesn’t foresee stopping anytime soon. “If you have an opportunity to help, you take it. It’s just what you do.”