Jaundice. You may have heard of it. You may even associate it with a yellow tinge to a newborn baby's skin. But do you know how serious it can be? Nicole Budik did. She knew that jaundice occurs because the baby's blood contains an excess of bilirubin, a yellow-colored pigment of red blood cells. Although complications are rare, severe cases or poorly treated jaundice can cause brain damage. So, when Budik saw a severely jaundiced baby, she had to act. But intervening was complicated; the baby was not even a patient but rather a visitor to a patient at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire. "I felt I needed to do something," says Budik, who earned the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses for her actions. She broached the topic with the family and helped them understand the concern for their child. The family agreed to admit the baby to the hospital for treatment. "You saved a brain," pediatric nurse coordinator Lisa Moelter tells Budik. "You truly saved this little baby's brain. It's because you took the time to not look the other way but to take action." Budik compliments her co-workers in inpatient Neuro/Peds/Trauma for their help. On this day, Budik called Moelter at home on her day off for guidance and found help for her other patients from lead nurse Chris Paradies. "We call it Neuro backbone,' " Budik says of the way staff work together to get things done. "I can't say enough good things about my colleagues." Moelter also sees some real dividends being paid to pediatric patients. "I also believe it is because of the pediatric experience our nurses are getting and the great care they provide to our pediatric patients that (staff) noticed this little one and saved a brain," Moelter says. In addition to support from her co-workers, Budik has a role model in her mom, Bonnie Goss, a registered nurse in the Orthopedic Center at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire. In fact, both mother and daughter were in nursing school at the same time at one point. "I'm so proud of her," Goss says. "She always wanted to be in the medical field, and she's a great nurse."