"On July 18th, our daughter MaKenzee was admitted to St. Mary's PICU for what my wife and I thought would be another one of our many visits to yet another hospital in order to get some fluids and run more tests. This has been a recurring circumstance since my daughter's diagnoses of Ulcerative Colitis almost two years ago. We had the thoughts of 'Great; another hospital, another doctor not being able to help our daughter, let's get through the next few days, maybe this would be what works this time.'

I spent the weekend with my daughter getting labs run while she received IV nutrition, with elevated liver enzymes, low Albumin culminating in an almost perfect CBC around two in the morning of the 21st. That would be the last good news my wife and I had for the next few days. Around four in the morning, my daughter started showing signs something was not moving in the positive direction that she had been. At that time, she was still somewhat stable given the test results and vitals going down some.

At nine in the morning, MaKenzee asked me to help her to the toilet due to the monitors and IVs she had in place. That is when she had a large amount of blood loss. The nurses immediately responded - Jessica S. being her primary that day, and her Student Nurse, Abbey, helped me clean her up and get her back to the bed not knowing the same would repeat itself less than five minutes later. Jessica S. immediately called for more help as my daughter began what would be a series of two more large blood losses in the coming hours and another the following day. Needless to say, her vitals dropped, resulting in her needing to be intubated and a PIC line placed, CT scans and I am sure many, many more tests that I lost track of. With the whirlwind of events, my daughter was slipping away.

I am going to point out that every nurse on the PEDS floor that day had a hand in my daughter's care, and it was only by their cohesiveness and dedication that my daughter survived. Even her Student Nurse, Abbey, spent much of her time feverishly writing down orders, vitals and anything else that would later needed to be charted. Jessica S. was the one who began directing traffic as the nurses rushed into the room, You get me this, You get her blood pressure, I am going to do this.' Everyone who entered that room knew what needed to be done and acted without hesitation. Jessica S. herself not leaving my daughter's side except for a moment or two for six hours. I have served in military units in the Air Force and Army that did not function at this level of precision, skill and absolute fortitude that these ladies showed at a moment's notice. Ultimately stabilizing our daughter, she later received many transfusions and blood products over the next 72 hours along with having a total Colectomy on the 23rd. We have been in various Hospitals in the region over the course of the past two years concerning our daughter's care and we will let anyone who would like to know that St. Mary's Nurses not only saved our child but also provided her with life-saving, compassionate care.

My wife and I understand that the DAISY Award is for extraordinary nurses in order to recognize the very special work nurses do every day. We cannot in good conscience only nominate one single nurse for this award knowing that we recognize the outstanding nursing care she received from everyone in the unit that day. We in no way wish to detract from the nurses who have cared for her tirelessly since our stay here began with the many curveballs our daughter has given them. These ladies have handled them all. We have continued to find out that the nurses and techs who have participated in her care (Ashley M., Winneta W., Jessica S. and Brandi H) some even calling on their days off to check on her, only illustrate to us that you have some really special ladies on your fourth floor."



Our DAISY Award Honorees:

RN, Jessica Schmitt BSN, RN, CPN

RN, Natalie Wilzbacher BSN, RN, CPN

RN, Anne Arrick BSN, RN, CPN

RN, Jamie Leitem BSN, RN, CPN

RN, Ellen Raben RN