A mom presented to another Ministry Health Care Facility in active pre-term labor. The SJCH NICU transport team was immediately activated. The transport team stabilized the baby prior to transporting back to our NICU. Upon arrival - Jodi took the admission as primary. She worked side by side with Dr. Jody Gross all morning while trying to further stabilize this baby and provided the best, most caring, technologically advanced care - to this little baby, who weighed in at just over one pound. All morning Jodi and Dr. Gross fought to keep this little one alive, we lost that battle late morning.

Jodi's immediate thought was of the mom, who was still at the other MHC facility. We had kept the mom & dad informed throughout the morning - this little tiny baby was just too little to sustain life. Jodi identified that she would like to take this baby to the parents to hold - that this was absolutely the right thing to do. With tears in her eyes, she asked me if I could help her get this done. After a few calls to ensure we had the correct consents to protect the family and to protect Jodi - we started making the preparations. Jodi took pictures and burned a CD disk creating as many memories as possible for the mom & dad that saw their baby for so short a time before being brought to Marshfield. Jodi was even ready to make this trip and then return to MSJH to complete her shift. Her peers around her saw this differently, we covered the rest of her shift - Jodi left with her treasured passenger to the parents. She spent time telling them of the battle - what happened in the hours since birth - and of our work to save their precious little one. She stayed with the parents for some hours after arriving - helping staff complete mementos including foot/hand molds, more pictures with mom & dad, all the things perinatal nurses do when we have a loss.

I am nominating Jodi Meronk for the DAISY Award for her work with this family. She completely exhibited the concept of giving her all - of doing the right thing at the right time for this family! As her manager, I am awed at the grace, the skill, the deep caring and the "how" of all the things done that day.