(l-r) Dr. Daaboul, who nominated her; Desi Kosan, Honoree; Lisa Bowman, CNO
May 2014
Desi
Kosan
,
MS, RN, OCN, CDE
Center for Pediatric Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism
Florida Hospital for Children
Orlando
,
FL
United States

 

 

 

A 13-Year-old girl with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus from Brazil was visiting Disney. She did not take her insulin and developed life-threatening diabetic ketoacidosis. She was admitted to the PICU in extremely serious condition. The group she had come with did not know that she had diabetes mellitus. The parents were not with the group. No one in the group knew her doses of insulin and the patient was not conscious. Desi is originally from Brazil. She spoke with the travel group in Portuguese and got the parents' names and phone numbers. The family was from a small town in Brazil and it literally took hours to communicate with them. She was finally able to communicate with the parents and got the patient's insulin doses. She then called the child's doctor in Brazil and informed him of the situation. When the patient recovered Desi again spoke with the parents in Brazil and the child's doctor to coordinate the child's flight back to Brazil which involved complicated adjustments to her insulin regimen. This process also literally took hours. Desi never told me this. I found out from the PICU nurse who was "blown away" by Desi's dedication and compassion.