Bryanna Whitcomb, MSN, BS, RN

My son was born in September of last year and had a 6.5-month NICU stay until he sadly passed away this year.

During our extended NICU stay, we formed a team of primary nurses, all of whom were amazing, caring, compassionate, supportive, and dedicated. Each one brought something to the table for him. Each one was special. 

Bryanna was the fourth to join our team. So far, I had recruited one nighttime nurse and two daytime nurses, but this still wasn't enough to cover each day. Bryanna had taken care of my son early on when he was very, very sick. We were in a smaller room with a very small window; it was always very dark, and no sunlight came in. We called it the dungeon. Although the first time she took care of him we had not really had too much of a chance to talk, I did note that she had been very pleasant, sweet, and upbeat. It was a tense time.

So, fast forward about a month and a half; my son was a little more stable, and we had moved to a brighter, bigger room when I saw Bryanna again. She was really sweet; she stopped in to check on him. She saw how much bigger he got, and she thought he was really cute. She came back later and mentioned to me that she had really liked taking care of him and saw that I was looking for primaries, and she had signed up!

In the end, my son's team was made up of seven nurses, and Bryanna was the only one who had willingly volunteered. She was excited to take care of him! I really liked that. 

What made Bryanna different is what she did to make a difference in my experience with my son, which ended up being his entire life. She gave us the closest thing to experiencing him as a normal baby.

What do I mean by this?

Up until Bryanna came on, I had drawers in the room filled with clothes, but I had not been able to dress my son. I tried to make the room as personal as possible by decorating for Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas, etc., and by bringing in my own bedsheets that would go underneath him. Also, I had blankets that I would wrap him in, but I only dreamed about dressing him. Briana came in, and she made that dream come true. It brings tears to my eyes to remember the first time I saw him in a little outfit.

Bryanna was always all for dressing him up in different little clothes and giving him baths. She wanted me to experience my son as much as I could as a baby, and I appreciate that from the bottom of my heart. She would offer to bathe him with me during the day, which was amazing because I would always have to wait until nighttime for the night shift to come on so I could bathe him.

Sometimes I would be really tired because I had been there all day, and to have to wait for the nighttime nurse to come on to be able to give him a bath would turn into a really long day, but if it was a bad day and Bryanna was working, I knew that we would be able to bathe him during the day. Sometimes she would even offer to bathe him when it wasn't even a bad day. If she saw that he was really dirty and he needed a bath, she would offer.

Bryanna was the first to get me foot prints. She also gave him a candy-cane-special blanket for Christmas. It was perfect because the blankets that I had brought in were making him really hot, and she got me the special blanket that he loved. When Christmas came around, the doctor dressed up as Santa Claus, and I was able to get pictures of him in that candy cane blanket.

I remember walking in on Christmas Day, and Bryanna had him in a mama roo. It was so sweet to see him in one of those. It was so sweet to walk in and see him experiencing being a baby, and for him to be out of his bed for a change.

Bryanna gifted him books for Christmas and Easter that I would read to him. The month he passed, Bryanna had gone on vacation; before she left, she came and gifted him his Winnie the Pooh blankets that he used during his last month with us. When he was cremated, he was wearing something from each of the nurses who had given him a gift, including his Winnie the Pooh blanket.

Also, another good quality that Bryanna had was that she was very clean and organized. She would come in and organize all his clothes, all his blankets, and had all his books labeled. All his drawers would always be nice and clean for him. 

Bryanna Whitcomb deserves this DAISY Award for making a difference in my child's life. The NICU was all he got to experience, so for her to go out of her way to make that a rich experience means everything to me and meant everything to my son.