December 30, my daughter, DS, was scheduled for outpatient/23 hour surgery for septum reconstruction with possible rib graft. This was the second time we had had to do this surgery and for personal reasons, it was very emotional for our family. It was even more difficult this time because I, her mother, was having to come alone because my husband is currently undergoing chemotherapy for metastatic cancer in his lungs and, with a low white count, cannot be around a hospital setting. I mention all of this because it's important to know that I was feeling very stressed and very alone when DS was brought up from recovery to 6A complaining not only of the expected nose pain and pain in her side from where the plastic surgeon did have to remove part of a rib for the graft, but she was also complaining of extraordinary unexplainable arm pain. I continued to mention it to everybody who was checking on her but since there had been no work done to her arm, they assured me it was probably due to her arm being positioned oddly during the six and a half hour surgery. This hypothesis turned out to be unfounded as her arm had been gently by her side all during the procedure as we would later learn. All the doctors brushed our concerns aside. But Adam didn't.

Adam kept listening to what we had to say and I felt like we had somebody who really heard our concerns. He was the one who stayed with DS and held her hand and heard what she had to say. Because her oxygen levels were in the high 90s and because our surgeon, in all his years of practice, had never had a collapsed lung in this procedure, nobody was even looking for a pneumothorax but Adam heard the diminished breath sounds and got the doctor who ordered the x-ray. The right lung was almost 100% collapsed. Adam explained everything to us that was happening and held DS's hand as they took us to the ICU for a chest tube and he was there when they brought her back to 6A. Unfortunately, the pneumothorax didn't respond quickly to the tube and the suction had to be turned back on a number of times and we have been here in Children's Hospital going on a week.

Probably the highlight of the whole time though was having Adam again for her night nurse yesterday! Not only did he remember everything about her, but took the time to talk to her about how she was improving, and made her feel so comfortable talking to her about the kinds of music she likes and treating her like a person, not just a patient. She loved that about him. What I loved about Adam Meyers is that I believe he saved my daughter. Her surgeon told us just after the procedure that everything had gone so well he was almost fine with her leaving that same day. With such an atypical presentation of such a serious pneumothorax, I wonder when she would have become symptomatic and how serious it would have been by then. Because Adam was so vigilant in his patient care, such a good listener, and so caring for DS as a person he exemplifies the kind of nurse that I believe the DAISY Foundation was established to recognize.