I am writing to nominate the staff of the cancer center in Huntington Hospital, nicknamed 1 North, for a DAISY Team Award.
 
My wife L and my experience with the 1 North team began in 2021. Three weeks earlier, after receiving a COVID booster shot L began to experience severe headaches. To the point she vomited from them. She visited Urgent Care, and they assured her they were due to her booster and they would subside. After a week of no relief, she visited her primary care physician who surmised the booster was to blame as well but given L’s history of HER2 positive breast cancer a brain MRI would be prudent. The soonest appointment was weeks away and the symptoms persisted, so we decided to visit the emergency room at Huntington Hospital. During that visit, they did a CT scan of her brain and found the tumor. It was late by the time we were admitted and brought into 1 North. We were still at the height of the pandemic, and visitors were not allowed with the patients but the nurses in 1 North could tell that L and I were scared and me leaving her was not going to be an option. They began calling and persisted until they got me the approval to stay with L.
 
L and I would be in the hospital for 7 months from that day except for a short time when we were released into home care. L’s condition was complicated. They performed surgery after surgery which would send us to the ICU but, we would push to be moved back to 1 North as soon as possible. The care, compassion, and empathy not just for L but I received there was unmatched by the other departments. The nurses would remember how L liked her pillow and which puddings or ices she liked her medicines mixed in. They would always let me know what medicines they were giving her and why. They let me participate in her day to day care the way I wanted and needed to. They took the time to get to know L and me. They found ways to get my young children and her parents in to see her.

When L’s cancer got worse, and we knew the efforts to put it in remission were lost, she had a valve in the brain to control her intercranial pressure. That valve was removed to let her go peacefully. The 1 North team allowed us to stay with them instead of moving us to Hospice. L fought for over 2 weeks before she passed. The 1 North team understood I was not going to leave her since any moment might be her last. They made sure I was comfortable and cared for me while I waited with her. 

After she passed, they gave me three little jars. Each one had a copy of L’s last recorded heartbeat in it.
 
It’s impossible for me to remember all the things 1 North did for us while we were there. Probably even more impossible for me to articulate what an amazing team they are. I am forever grateful for them and will never be able to return the love they showed me and my family.
 
Thank you so much for your time reading pieces of our story. I hope this provides the evidence needed that the 1 North Team is deserving of a DAISY Team Award.