In the Air, In the Hospital, In the Community: Angel on a Mission

In the 1990s, he stepped into a newly created role as a resource nurse, cross-training in nearly every department - the operating room, physical therapy, the plastic surgery floor and the PICU - which also introduced him to one of the unique aspects of Shriners Children's care: patient transport.

For more than a decade, Angel served as a flight nurse, flying across the country and overseas to bring children in need of specialized burn care to Shriners Children's Texas. "Those were some of the hardest but most rewarding years of my life," Angel said. "You'd get a call in the middle of the night. A child in Mexico or Central America had been burned, and they needed help right away. You'd pack your bag, call your partner and go."

"You'd walk into a hospital that looked like something out of the 50s," he said. "They'd done everything they could, but they couldn't take the patient any further." Often, parents couldn't accompany their child on the flight because there was not enough space on the aircraft. So, Angel became both nurse and caretaker for the long journey home. "There were a lot of times I had these adopted children for five or six hours," he said. "It was easy to say, I'm going to treat this child like it's my child, because that's what we did."

Over the years, Angel helped hundreds of "adopted children," each one temporarily his to look after. Every time he returned to Galveston, he made sure to call the parents who had trusted him with their child. It was a small gesture, but one he believed mattered deeply. Those years shaped how Angel viewed responsibility - to his patients, their families and his community - a perspective that proved important when the next challenge came.

In September 2008, Hurricane Ike tore through Galveston, nearly devastating the island and the hospital. Staff members were furloughed while repairs were underway. "It was devastating," Angel said. "We didn't even know if the hospital would reopen."

But Angel didn't sit still. Along with a group of coworkers, he formed what they called the "Muck out Team." For seven weeks straight, the team would drive to Galveston each morning with special passes to let them through. They gutted houses, cleaned debris and checked on every staff member.