March 2024
Caroline
Schifano
,
RN, BSN, CCRN
ECMO/CICU
Norton Children's Hospital
Louisville
,
KY
United States
Caroline is thorough, kind, caring, and very attentive. She would always call to give us updates, even if he was just having a good day.
Our 2-week-old son, who had previously been completely healthy, became critically ill in a matter of hours. Within hours of entering the hospital, our son was emergently placed on ECMO. Doctors sat down with us multiple times to tell us that he wasn’t going to make it. I will never forget the chaos of the CICU room, with several doctors, nurses, and many other staff. Out of all of these people, I will never forget Caroline Schifano. Caroline stopped me while I was quickly exiting the room for the surgery team to enter and said, “He’s really strong, mom.” These are words I needed to hear at this time and thinking of this, I still tear up. She was the nurse who remained positive. Throughout his 110-day hospital stay, much of this time was in the CICU. I can personally thank Caroline for saving his life and noticing his decomposition many, many times. There were many times that he would become unstable through the night, and Caroline would notice in the morning something was wrong and bring it to immediate attention. Many of these times led to procedures or surgeries that were life-saving. Caroline is thorough, kind, caring, and very attentive. She would always call to give us updates, even if he was just having a good day. She would always give us updates when we woke up in the morning. She would find him toys and lights to keep him entertained and happy while he was going through withdrawal from sedatives. She showed so much compassion and empathy that many of us will never understand, checking on both my son and us as parents. I could never thank her enough for how she cared for our baby boy.