I am a Registered Nurse but I'm submitting this nomination as a patient. For 3 weeks I was having blurry vision, so I made an appointment with an outside vision clinic (who accepted our vision insurance). I was told that I needed progressive lenses. I had Lasik eye surgery 15 years ago, so I just figured that my vision was changing and perhaps the surgery wore off. After purchasing these progressive glasses, I still could not see but the outside vision facility told me that it could take 3-5 days for my eyes to adjust to the new glasses.

While on lockdown during Hurricane Ida I was laying on my air mattress I rubbed my left eye, and this is when I noticed that I could barely see out of my right eye. The next morning my Assistant Vice President of Nursing-Renee DiGiovanni came to my office to check on me and asked me how I was doing. I made a comment to her that I think that I'm going blind. Renee picked up her cell phone and said, "let me reach out to someone to see if you could get seen." I was like "yeah right" during this storm?! Well at approximately 5 pm I received a phone call on my cell from the doctor asking if I had about 30 minutes for a quick appointment of course I said yes. I went to the clinic and the doctor noticed that my retina had become detached, so he called another fellow for consult. Needless to say, my 30-minute appointment turned into 2 hours. They immediately scheduled for me to have emergency eye surgery the next day. It was discovered during surgery that my retina was detached in 4 places and I needed extensive laser surgery.

I have been recuperating from surgery and throughout this recuperating stage, I learned a lot about myself. I've done a lot of re-evaluating, meditating, and renewing my connection with God. The excellent care and compassion that I received from Renee were priceless. The physicians that cared for my have been excellent my coworkers amazing my employees have been wonderful all checking on me numerous times.

I'm nominating Renee but she made me feel like I was a VIP-very important person like I mattered. She is being modest about this whole situation but if she hadn't listened to me and my concerns, I could have completed lost my vision. Renee has also told me to take as much time that I need in order to recuperate. With eye surgery, I have been under strict orders and limited mobility so for Renee to tell me that I can take my time meant a lot to me and my healing process. Renee texted me the prayer of Saint Lucy the patron saint for eyes which was perfect timing and had me very emotional because it was very much needed at that time. This prayer is for the healing of the eyes and the soul.

Renee went well beyond the call of duty to ensure that I was seen. I am the type of person who has always put others before myself. Being lockdown for the hurricane I wanted to put my appointment off because I needed to be there for others. Although Renee is my boss, she utilized her nursing skills and assessment and really pushed me to get checked out.