Chris was my son's nurse for 2, maybe 3, days of my son's PICU stay, and she was simply exemplary. She was extremely attentive to my son, who was in the PICU for 12 days due to a severe meningitis infection. My son was completely sedated, intubated, and just had a life-threatening bleeding event due to an injury from his catheter placement before her first shift with us. Despite his delicate state and our overwhelming anxiety, Chris gave us a place of comfort by believing in our son and focusing on his recovery. She did this by taking the initiative of fitting my still unconscious son with physical therapy boots so that his ankles would not be injured and aggressively making sure he was moved often to prevent complications from being in the hospital bed long-term. She told us the boots would take away pressure from his ankles for when he starts walking again. I was surprised to see someone so confident that he would actually be "recovering" any time soon, as all we had seen up until that point were complications and the burden of the unknown.

Chris knew that my son's catheter situation was a point of focus due to his previous bleeds. She took action by being extra defensive of my son's injury. Not only did she verbally warn any visiting physician of the situation before they could examine him, she put a sign up on his monitor to strongly, yet politely advise them of the dangerous situation. The sign read "DO NOT MANIPULATE MY FOLEY. THANKS!!" Not only did she care for our son, but she cared for us as well. We previously did not know that the hospital couch could be made into a bed. She arranged the couch pillows to convert it into a bed and added extra sheets and even an egg crate cushion for us. This effectively and drastically increased our comfort level during the rest of our PICU stay. They say, "Home is where the heart is." While this is true and we made our home in the PICU due to our love needing to be there, Chris also made us actually feel at home with her hospitality and her own heart of gold.