Our mom was admitted to the hospital from the ED  with many concerning symptoms. We quickly found out that she was COVID+, which was very scary news since she has many other serious medical conditions that our family knew were not good when combined with COVID. Our mom quickly went from being her happy and talkative self to not being able to communicate well and being very disoriented.

She was in the hospital battling COVID for 13 days. Nicky was mom’s nurse for the first full week and we thank God for that! Nicky talked to my sisters and me daily about how our mom was doing. Not only that but we would be on the phone with mom and catch Nicky in the room speaking so sweetly to her, “let’s go sweetie”, “how are you doing honey”, even though mom really could not communicate well back. Nicky’s kind heart and gentle spirit really were a blessing to us all.

Although I know being an RN is demanding and very time consuming, Nicky always took the time to share with us what was going on, how mom was doing, and provided support and compassion, well outside of the norm! There was one night mom was not doing well at all. She was on high flow oxygen and declining. We discussed her condition as a family and decided the kindest thing we could do for mom was to put a DNR on her chart. Wow, that was hard! After that decision was made, I called Nicky to let her know. Well, I tried to anyway. I was a complete sobbing mess and could not speak! Nicky told me to hold on one minute while she went to a quiet place to talk to me. She comforted me and reassured me for about 15 minutes, that this decision was very unselfish and so kind of us to do for our mom. I was so impressed with her sheer dedication to communicate with compassion and to take the time to discuss this extremely hard decision with me on a very personal level.

There are many other details I can share, however, I will just end this with the fact that I worked at PIH for 10 years and I am now at another local hospital, and my 2 sisters and brother in law work currently for PIH. We know how amazing all health care workers are, how hard they work and how many times they go unappreciated. However, Nicky is a Super Star and I want to be sure that all at PIH are aware that our family so appreciates Nicky, her kindness, and the support of my mom as the patient and our family as a whole. I would also like to say all involved in our mom’s care were just wonderful! No one skipped a beat! I am pleased to say, mom beat COVID! It truly was a miracle and I believe those involved in her care saved her life for sure! Thank you for helping us have more precious time with our mom!