I am honored to be nominating Bethany Hyatt, BSN, RN, CPN, for the DAISY Award. Bethany exemplified Children’s Hospital Colorado’s values through her generous service, boundless creativity, humble expertise, and caring community as she cared for a young surgical pediatric patient and his grandparents. Bethany learned in pre-op that the child’s mother passed away the night prior, unexpectedly, and the grandparents had no guardianship papers to allow them to sign surgical consent. Given the sensitive nature of the situation, Bethany escalated the case and collaborated with the patient’s caseworker, social work, and the risk management team to explore options that would allow them to proceed with surgery.

Due to the abruptness of the situation, the child's grandparents had not yet obtained legal guardianship. After several hours of delay and many phone calls, the risk management team and case manager were able to determine that the grandparents were in the “best interest of the patient" and granted an exception for them to sign the surgical consent to proceed with surgery. This could have resulted in the automatic cancellation of the patient’s surgery, but due to the unique circumstances and medical necessity, Bethany’s advocacy and persistence enabled the patient to undergo a much-needed surgical procedure to improve his quality of life.