Ela Gainey, BSN, RN

I was recently admitted into the Baptist Clay Emergency Room with a life-threatening, full-intestinal occlusion, and nurse Ella cared for me during this time. I was in excruciating pain and was put on morphine drip.

Now, I seem to recall in my groggy haze that nurse Ella G. was not a woman of great stature, but to me she stands ten feet tall and is dynamite on steroids. She had to be keeping a constant eye on me and couldn't have hesitated for even an instant in order to see me start to collapse and throw her body into harm's way between my overarching size and the cold, hard floor or the ER. Still, to this day, I have no idea how she caught me as I went unconscious. She protected me with her own body and drew on such strength that not even a knee hit the floor, averting certain disaster that a dead drop to the hard floor would have undoubtedly caused. She is the emblem of self-sacrifice and my power dynamo hero!

Thank you, nurse MA Ella G! I didn't even realize that I was falling until I felt her arms wrap around me to arrest all my falling weight, and I felt myself being dragged backwards toward the bed. I recall her calling out for G., who was yet again 'ever at the ready' and rushed to the rescue.

I passed out altogether and don't recall or know how the two of them got me back into the bed, but they did, as that is where I became conscious again. Nurse Ella deserves the highest award that Baptist Health has to offer for her injury-saving actions in the wee hours of the morning at the Baptist Clay Emergency Room. I am so grateful for her quick and selfless actions that kept me from certain harm! Thank you, Ela for all you do for our patients, families and team members! Congratulations on receiving the DAISY Award!