My husband had a cardiac arrest with no history and no known cause to date. He was unresponsive for 40 minutes while the EMS and ER teams worked on him, and we have been told he is a miracle on numerous occasions. While we had the most incredible group of people who cared for him both in the ER and in the ICU, Noelle Mayor stands out in so many ways as someone who treated us with keen medical knowledge as well as kindness and compassion and treated us as if we were not patients but family.
One moment that stands out was early on when I was trying to decide whether or not to bring our oldest daughter to see her daddy (I had already decided it wasn't the time to bring our youngest). He was in an induced coma at the time and was hooked up to ample IVs, was intubated, had a balloon pump in his heart and was on the cooling machine. At the time, all our girls knew was that daddy was very sick, and the doctors were helping him sleep, so he could rest to get better. I asked Noelle if she had any advice, and she told me it was up to me when to bring her, but that she could do certain things to make it less scary for our oldest daughter, such as covering him up well so some of the devices were less daunting.
Noelle also suggested we find cartoon coloring pages of what he would look like, so my daughter could be prepared for what she would see. When she came in the next day, Noelle wore her Super Hero scrubs and made it fun for her. Noelle asked her if she wanted to hear her daddy's heart beat in his chest with a stethoscope, and when she shied away, Noelle asked if she wanted to hear his heartbeat in his foot using the ultrasound machine. My daughter laughed. I told her it was like listening to her little sister's heartbeat when she was in my belly, and the nurse said, "Maybe your daddy has a baby in his foot." We all laughed.
Noelle truly made it a less frightening experience for all of us and helped me prepare my daughter for seeing her daddy in a pretty scary state. My daughter did wonderfully and walked out saying, "He is so awesome," with a big smile on her face. I attribute that to Noelle's truly thoughtful help.
Another time that stands out to me was probably a week or so later - a day I had left the hospital briefly to shower and came back to news that his family had received while I was gone about the possibility that he may show signs of Cerebral Palsy due to the areas of the brain that had experienced swelling. This news hurt. My mother in law told me Noelle had specifically said for me to come to find her when I got there so that she could talk to me about it. I went straight for her and she talked me through it, gave me the facts and the possibilities and calmed me down. I could honestly tell many, many more stories. I am not even sure how many days she was our nurse, but I believe it was at least half of the 2 weeks we were here. We felt blessed every time she walked in. She truly was a comfort to us. Without a doubt, I feel she deserves the DAISY Award for bringing calm and confidence to a time that was tumultuous for me and my family. We have come to love Noelle dearly, and she will definitely be invited to future barbecues.