Today we’d like to introduce you to Liz O’Connell.
Hi Liz, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m from Virginia, born and raised. My journey really started when I was a kid – my little sister was diagnosed with leukemia at 11 months old and battled it her entire life. When I was 6 I was asked to donate bone marrow to her to help save her life, which I did. After the transplant, she lived 2 years cancer-free before she relapsed again. I donated bone marrow again in an attempt to save her life, but sadly she died from complications a few weeks before her 7th birthday. I was 9. My parents divorced soon after. Dealing with the grief of her death and the breakdown of my family unit was a large part of my adolescence. Fast forward to my 20s, on New Year’s Eve of 2013 I received a call that my mother had unexpectedly died. Again, grief hit me like a truck. Life got pretty dark for a while until I pulled myself out of the hole I was in to turn my life around. I put myself through nursing school and became a bone marrow transplant nurse. Talk about the full-circle moment. I was now the nurse for families just like mine. Unfortunately, many of my patients didn’t make it and I was now helping others deal with death and dying.
In 2020 I became a certified death doula and started my own business to help support others through the death and dying experience. I am one of a few death doulas in the country that is also a nurse, so what I offer has a special flavor.
In addition to my death doula work, I also do mobile IVs for clients in my area. I did travel nursing for about two years and quickly felt the burn-out so many healthcare professionals feel. I was frustrated with our medical system and was craving more holistic wellness and preventative-medicine options to help others. Mobile IVs have allowed me to go to people’s homes or offices to give them IV vitamins and minerals to help support their wellness goals. I treat COVID symptoms, migraines, cold/flu, food poisoning, migraines, dehydration, and even have drips that support beauty, wellness, energy, mood, and immunity.
Right now, I am fully self-employed and do mobile IVs and death doula work as my way of helping others. That’s my story in a nutshell. 🙂
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest obstacle and challenge with my work is the lack of awareness with the general public. Most people you ask have never heard of a death doula, so finding clients is a challenge. It’s a lot of educating others about what we do and who we are and how we are valuable and *so* needed right now. Same with IVs- a lot of people don’t know that getting an IV when they’re sick in their own home is an option – or that if they have a migraine they can call me for a drip instead of heading to the ER and spending the day there. The best part is – the drip I give for migraines has the same ingredients as the IVs they administer in the hospital for migraines.
So the main challenge is educating people on why people need my services! Everyone at any age can benefit from working with a death doula. Our role is so dynamic!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Drips by Liz?
I call myself the Death Doula Nurse and my IV business is Drip by Liz, but I work under my parent company, Drip IV Utah.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I know you guys reached out to me through my drip iv email, so I’m not even sure you know about my death doula work, but being featured would be an honor to help get the word out about this sacred and so-needed work. 🙂 Thank you!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.deathdoulanurse.com
- Instagram: @dripsbyliz
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