Maeve Coyne
September 2021
Maeve
Coyne
,
BSN, RN
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit
Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters
Norfolk
,
VA
United States
Maeve came in a little later after my daughter had calmed down and gave kitty a bath with some peroxide and water and got all the blood out.
Our 18 month old daughter recently underwent open heart surgery and spent several days in the PICU at CHKD. It was there that we had the greatest pleasure of meeting Maeve or ‘Mae’, as the other nurses called her. Have you ever meet someone and just his or her presence makes you feel calm and optimistic? That’s ‘Mae’. Even behind a mask, you could tell she was smiling a beautiful smile whenever she came into our room. Whether she was coming into our room to do vitals, administer meds, draw blood, remove a line, it did not matter. She was always upbeat and positive, even when my daughter made it known she was not happy to be in the hospital.
There was one encounter during our stay when Maeve’s kind and caring nature really stood out to me. She had come in (with another nurse) to remove the A-line from my daughter, who had had just about enough of everyone at this point. My daughter went into a total tantrum, the likes of which I have never seen. Maeve kept so calm and collected and focused on the task at hand, all while comforting and giving reassuring words to my daughter. During her rage-filled tantrum, my toddler managed to pull out an IV line, and got blood on her stuffed kitty. I chalked it up as a loss and told my husband to grab a new one on the way home if the store still had them.
Maeve came in a little later after my daughter had calmed down and gave kitty a bath with some peroxide and water and got all the blood out. She even wrapped her up in a towel to dry so my daughter could snuggle with her. We were lucky enough to have Maeve as our nurse twice while we were there. She had the perfect balance between giving us the space we needed, but also being there for whatever we needed. She made sure that not only our daughter was taken care of, but we parents were taken care of, too. It truly seemed like our excitement and happiness with our daughter’s progress was also her excitement and happiness. We shared the joy of her recovery milestones, and her discharge. I truly hope we never end up in the PICU again but if we do I will have every finger crossed we have Maeve again.
There was one encounter during our stay when Maeve’s kind and caring nature really stood out to me. She had come in (with another nurse) to remove the A-line from my daughter, who had had just about enough of everyone at this point. My daughter went into a total tantrum, the likes of which I have never seen. Maeve kept so calm and collected and focused on the task at hand, all while comforting and giving reassuring words to my daughter. During her rage-filled tantrum, my toddler managed to pull out an IV line, and got blood on her stuffed kitty. I chalked it up as a loss and told my husband to grab a new one on the way home if the store still had them.
Maeve came in a little later after my daughter had calmed down and gave kitty a bath with some peroxide and water and got all the blood out. She even wrapped her up in a towel to dry so my daughter could snuggle with her. We were lucky enough to have Maeve as our nurse twice while we were there. She had the perfect balance between giving us the space we needed, but also being there for whatever we needed. She made sure that not only our daughter was taken care of, but we parents were taken care of, too. It truly seemed like our excitement and happiness with our daughter’s progress was also her excitement and happiness. We shared the joy of her recovery milestones, and her discharge. I truly hope we never end up in the PICU again but if we do I will have every finger crossed we have Maeve again.