He went above and beyond to make sure my nine-month-old was comfortable and helped me voice my concerns to the doctors when my child seemed to be taking a turn for the worse. He treated her with compassion and empathy and above all like she was important and not just another room number or another patient. He was our nurse for two days. He went above and beyond his job checking to make sure she was ok and comfortable.

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We spend a lot of time inpatient at Children’s Mercy with our daughter, this year especially. She has a scary, rare genetic disease, and she is very complicated. She also has a very opinionated mom (me), and because she is nonverbal, it is especially challenging for me and l often leave the hospital exhausted and upset about something. Not this time! This is the first DAISY nomination I have submitted in nine years of hospital stays - not because I don’t think lots of nurses deserve them, but because this experience was so different and so refreshing. We spent the last four days inpatient and for the last two days, Gary was our nurse. I knew this was going to be a rough stay for me because my husband and other two kids were sick at home, and it was just me and my sick daughter at the hospital. I needed kindness and positivity and someone to listen to me and Gary was that nurse for us.

I was most impressed with how well he explained my daughter to the next nurse at shift change; he also did this with doctors. I am a very verbal advocate but it’s hard to explain the same things over and over again. Gary had to be tired at the end of his shifts but he always took the extra time to make sure we were covered. He checked on us frequently and quickly and confidently passed on messages to specialists and doctors for us. When I found out he was a fairly new nurse I was shocked as he was so knowledgeable and really a natural with my daughter and parents. He made us feel like he had our best interests at heart and would help me fight for what I thought my daughter needed. It was by far our easiest stay when it comes to care. I hope he has a long career in nursing at Children’s Mercy and that many families like mine get to experience not only his kindness, confidence, optimism, and natural skill. One more thing, I want to mention is he checked and double-checked our chart to make sure that all changes were correct and approved by us and the doctors. He was truly exceptional!!