I received a call from Ann Massa to introduce herself and ask what we needed to make M's stay as smooth as possible. She offered to have M come in beforehand to get a sense of the area (he passed on that offer but I took her up on it and went myself!). She spoke to me about her own teenage son with autism and assured me that they would do whatever worked best for M to make it a new memory of hospitals for him. I met all the nurses and was given the chance to explain ahead of time how M might become very hostile and violent because he would be so scared of any "tests" or "bloodwork".
While I felt many of my concerns were quelled after my tour with Ann, we can't describe in words how nervous we were as we checked into Unit C. But from the moment we got there, Ann Massa and Debra Carvalho were calming, kind, and very understanding about handling M. They didn't do a thing to him without asking him and then telling him exactly what they were about to do BEFORE doing it. They let him ask any and every question and patiently answered him. He didn't like the automatic BP machine, so Debra brought in the manual one, no problem—her main goal was to accommodate him.
Ann was there the whole time, helping to make sure M was all right. When it was time to go down for the MRI and M lost all control of his senses to fear, he went right after Ann who was standing near him. He kicked, punched, hit—we all ran to restrain him—but he got a few in and Ann never lost her composure. Not only did Ann keep her cool, when it was over, she smiled at us with that knowing look—not in judgement of our son, but with compassion for the challenges that teenage autism presents. I am sure when she got home she probably needed an ice pack!
We never felt like the pediatric unit was away from us on the "5th floor"—the pediatric unit was right by our side no matter where we went in the hospital.
We want to commend Ann and her leadership role in developing a top-notch, compassionate pediatric nursing staff at Community. I think M said it best on our last day there, he said:
"I will miss this view from the window, but I will also miss all these incredibly caring nurses. You are right mom, this wasn't bad at all".
Thanks to Ann Massa and her team, M has a new memory of hospitals—a happy one.