My husband and I would like to express our gratitude for the excellent care that we received for our daughter last week during our short stay at East Tennessee Children's Hospital NICU. This time last Saturday we were in the NICU with our two day old daughter, R who was transferred from Parkwest just over 24 hours after her delivery when she failed her CCHD screen. Although I typically enjoy deliveries, and the birth of our fourth child was no exception, it was a nerve-wracking week. We had already visited Children's ER the day before my delivery for a serious injury to my 20-month old son's finger, and with my tubal ligation scheduled the day after R's arrival, my husband and I were already feeling the stress. Hence, Thursday evening at Parkwest, when we heard that R would suddenly need to be transported to Children's to rule out congenital heart disease with the possibility of surgery, we were frazzled.
From the moment of the news that Lifeline ambulance was on the way, steps were immediately in place at Parkwest to ensure that we had a smooth transition to Children's.
My husband and I were escorted to R's NICU room where we were relieved to hear that R's ABGs and chest Xray were negative. I was able to immediately breastfeed her and we were very warmly greeted by Erin Raffray, RN and the doctor. The genuine compassion and tenderness they both oozed was palpable in the air and put us at ease. The doctor explained many of the possibilities for our baby's 02 sats in the upper 80s, and it felt like no matter what the outcome of our daughter's echocardiogram, that we were in good hands medically. Erin kindly explained the layout of our room and what to expect during our NICU stay. Her demeanor with us and the ease with which she juggled R was top-notch care from start to finish.
I have been a physician assistant for ten years. Being on the gurney side of treatment, I was so impressed by ETCH's NICU facility including the calming artistic touches and the rooftop garden. It is your people however, that made our stay excellent. Everyone was so kind, thorough and compassionate. One person, in particular, was especially exceptional, Erin Raffray. I was floored that she had only recently moved her family to Knoxville and was in her fifth week of work because she did not seem timid like employees can be during an orientation period. She was extremely professional, proactive, clear in her communication, confident in caring for our child and intelligent. As we awaited the echo for the morning, Erin even tried tricks to help figure out the cause for R's low 02 like holding her glasses to R's nares with a pacifier in her mouth to see if they fogged or if R's 02 decreased. I felt that Erin cared about our daughter and wanted to identify the cause of her desaturations.
As results came in, Erin was easily able to explain the causes behind transient tachypnea and to help us understand how this could have happened given R's fast delivery and some meconium in the amniotic fluid. Erin was amazing and I want your management to know it! She even fed R a bottle of my breast milk during the middle of the night feeding at her suggestion so that I could get more sleep. Erin mentioned loving to help babies as part of her job, but that her real motivation was caring for their mothers, too, like a ministry. I felt it.
In the end, our stay at the NICU all ended up being medically non-critical, and for that, we are so grateful! We are thankful that Parkwest and Children's took R's situation and initial hypoxia seriously because she would have been in great hands had she needed emergency heart surgery. My husband and I feel for families that don't have a positive of medical results as we did last week, or for those with extended stays or for those who are never able to take their children home. We thank the ETCH NICU team for taking great care of our family! May God bless the work of your hands.