We have a special needs daughter who was admitted to Banner Desert. She was in a deep delirium, hallucinating state brought on by a combination of medical issues and behavioral crisis. She was taking a huge cocktail of meds when she arrived. Our daughter was in a state of physical aggression, badly hurting herself and others. She had previously been in another hospital ICU for 3 weeks, then transferred to a retirement facility (She is 22 chronologically but about three cognitively). The retirement facility refused to give her meds to her if she refused or was sleeping. She went without her meds for a 24-hour period one day and other days her meds were off-schedule. By the time we made it to Banner Desert, we had just about lost all hope for ever bringing our daughter home. We were beyond exhausted, with barely any sleep. We lost all our home care assistants, as they were overwhelmed. We were wondering if we would ever get our daughter back to baseline. She is a loving, affectionate joyful girl. A few negative behaviors but was able to be re-directed.
When our daughter met Missy, even in her worst state she listened to her. Missy used the "Token Economy System" with her. She was even-mannered and consistent with our daughter. I am writing this with tears in my eyes because I did not think anyone could get through to our daughter. Missy, being very upbeat and happily energetic, turned our daughter around throughout her stay. It wasn't easy, it took some time and patience on Missy's part and all the wonderful staff working with her, but our daughter responded so well. Missy helped us through our grief and I thank God for her! She is a wonderful person who we really admire. We cannot thank her enough. We discharged yesterday with our little girl back to baseline. Missy and all the staff came to our room before we left with well wishes and gifts for our daughter. I think they were so happy for all of us, they were sad to see us go. Banner Desert was terrific! There is so much more I could go on and on about our daughter's care. We would love to share our experience. Missy is the most extraordinary nurse we have ever had.