June 2026 Honoree
Stephanie Kaphengst, BSN
The NICU is a hard place to feel like yourself as a parent. At best, you just went through an unexpected early birth experience. At worst, it was traumatic - something you haven’t had the capacity to fully process yet. Either way, you’re terrified about your newborn’s health and want to bring them home, but only once it’s safe to do so. The days feel long, jumbled together, and isolating.
It’s in this environment where we met Stephanie Kaphengst, who made a huge difference in our son's health and our mental wellbeing throughout his NICU stay at Central DuPage Hospital.
From the start, we could be ourselves with Stephanie. She “could hang.” She used her wit and sarcasm to help us feel at ease, breathe and be ourselves in a highly stressful situation.
When our son had a significant heart rate drop that turned him dusky blue, Stephanie was the one to step in and bring him out of it. To her, it was another day at the office. To us, she will forever wear a hero's cape. We saw her witty side from the start, but through that experience, we saw her deeply caring, compassionate and professional side too. She took the time to make sure dad - who was there first - knew what happened and could ask all his questions. Then when mom came, she happily repeated herself and brought back the doctor to give her the same level of care, time and chance to ask questions. She continually checked back on us, acknowledged the situation was scary and not what we wanted, and took care of us, after giving us the biggest gift of all by being there for our son.
Stephanie cared for our whole family throughout our stay, including our two year old, who had a hard time staying entertained and contained behind the curtain of our son’s room. Stephanie always took interest in our daughter by saying hi and asking her questions. She even colored her a Bluey picture to give to her as a surprise!
Stephanie is an exceptional nurse. She has an innate ability to take care of the whole person by balancing her compassion, thoughtfulness and charm.
It’s in this environment where we met Stephanie Kaphengst, who made a huge difference in our son's health and our mental wellbeing throughout his NICU stay at Central DuPage Hospital.
From the start, we could be ourselves with Stephanie. She “could hang.” She used her wit and sarcasm to help us feel at ease, breathe and be ourselves in a highly stressful situation.
When our son had a significant heart rate drop that turned him dusky blue, Stephanie was the one to step in and bring him out of it. To her, it was another day at the office. To us, she will forever wear a hero's cape. We saw her witty side from the start, but through that experience, we saw her deeply caring, compassionate and professional side too. She took the time to make sure dad - who was there first - knew what happened and could ask all his questions. Then when mom came, she happily repeated herself and brought back the doctor to give her the same level of care, time and chance to ask questions. She continually checked back on us, acknowledged the situation was scary and not what we wanted, and took care of us, after giving us the biggest gift of all by being there for our son.
Stephanie cared for our whole family throughout our stay, including our two year old, who had a hard time staying entertained and contained behind the curtain of our son’s room. Stephanie always took interest in our daughter by saying hi and asking her questions. She even colored her a Bluey picture to give to her as a surprise!
Stephanie is an exceptional nurse. She has an innate ability to take care of the whole person by balancing her compassion, thoughtfulness and charm.
Thank you, Stephanie, for your exceptional compassion, advocacy, and dedication to your patients. You truly make a difference.
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