My mother was admitted into the ICU. She was intubated, sedated, and ultimately on her "death" bed. My mother had pneumonia in both lungs and was septic. I have worked with nurses for the last two years and knew the moment the doctor said, "she needs to be intubated", it was not good. She was transferred to the ICU and I was so scared. Luckily enough I had my boyfriend and my best friend at my side. However, I also knew that only two people were allowed in the ICU room at a time and I knew I couldn't do this without my support group. We had never been through anything like this before. We were all scared, sad, confused, and had so many questions.

Then we were blessed with one nurse who would change our whole world. She allowed all three of us in the room and just said "don't get in my way if I need to do something" with a smile on her face. "Don't mess with Nurse Amanda!" we would say. "She'll get ya!" 

The moment she walked into the room, she really brightened it up. She came in with a joke to make us laugh but then she did so much more than that. She is what I call "a gift from God". She would explain everything to us even if we didn't ask. Why the machines were constantly going off, why they had my mom on ten different medications, why something did this or they were going to do that. She would tell us when she increased or lowered mom's medications, never leaving us in the dark.

I remember her saying to mom at one point, "come on lady, we have to get your blood pressure up". Even though mom was sedated, she treated her as if she were awake and as if she were her mom. She even asked me what music mom liked to listen to. I quickly responded with "we are not blaring heavy metal music". Little did I know, Amanda liked heavy metal. We ultimately agreed on sleepscape music that my mom would listen to when she was going to bed. That did calm her down but only for a little bit.

The first time my mom coded, I had just stepped outside to take a little break. My friend texted me and my boyfriend said to come back. We knew it was bad. The moment I walked around the corner, I saw Amanda on top of my mom performing CPR. I could hear the machine making that flat-lined noise. But then she yelled "we got her back". I dropped to my knees. As soon as she came out of the room, I ran over and gave her the biggest hug and kept saying "thank you so much!" Both of us standing in tears.

But then mom coded again and again. All the times this happened, within a five hour timeframe, she jumped into action and started CPR. After each time she got her back, she would explain everything she had to do even if it was not good news. Again, never leaving us in the dark.

There was a point in the night when Amanda and her team were going back and forth from mom's room to another room due to Code Blue. Around 5 AM she walked out of the other room, crying because they couldn't save him. What she did next is something I believe only an angel can do. She walked right into my mom's room and started checking to make sure she was okay. Knowing she had just lost a patient, she never let it interfere with taking care of her other patients. The moment she saw me in the room, she quickly wiped her tears away and started updating me on mom's progress which was not good. Tears still in her eyes. You could see her pain but you knew in that moment she truly cares for all of her patients as if they were her family.

During the 13 hours that Amanda was with us, she always kept a calm tone so it wouldn't stress us out more than we already were. When her shift was over, she came over and hugged me, tears pouring out of her eyes and said, "I really hope I get to see you all again tonight". Unfortunately, an hour after she left my mom passed away. I will truly never be able to thank her enough for the love, patience, and compassionate care that she not only provided to my mom, but to me, my boyfriend, my best friend, and my kids.

Thank you Amanda for being there that night. Not only for my mother but for me and my family. We will never ever forget the impact you made on us that day. The story about Patrick and why the Daisy Foundation was created really hit home that day.