My wife was admitted to the hospital because she was developing preeclampsia, and our OB-GYN wanted to induce labor. She was on Pitocin for a day and a half and not making much progress, other than the brutal contractions when she felt something "pop". She told the nurse on duty, Sara, and she checked my wife to find that the umbilical cord had prolapsed. I was sitting down at the time, and when I stood up and went to the bed I saw Sara sitting there between her legs, holding a handful of blue umbilical cord.
Sara immediately started calming and assertively getting assistance, while giving orders and staying on the bed in position holding our son's lifeline free and unkinked so he could continue getting oxygen. Sara was cool and collected, and she kept readjusting the monitor with the other hand so she could keep track of his condition with steely determination. She rode the gurney down to the OR, doing her duty, as I walked behind. Sara stayed on the operating table under a sheet until Dr. C arrived and removed my son with a C-section procedure, that I hope someone timed because it had to have been a world record.
The whole emergency to surgery process took perhaps 30 minutes. In that time, my son's life, and by default the futures of myself and my wife, were in the hands of your capable staff and Dr. C, but most of all, Sara. She made all the correct decisions in the moment, performed steadfastly and admirably, and was critical to the entire process resulting in a living, healthy baby.
I have a son because of Sara. There is no way I can ever repay her, but to do this, to suggest that she has changed my life forever.