I recently found myself needing the emergency/surgery services of Piedmont Athens Regional. I traveled 500 miles from home all alone in my old white box truck, to visit an auto race support shop near your hospital. Early on Sunday evening, I became very ill, with severe stomach pain. At first, I thought this was just another kidney stone, but it was worse and different. Around 0800 I was dropped off at your hospital by the manager of the race shop. I was immediately taken care of by the admitting staff and whisked off to the ER department.

I have very little memory of the next few hours and only a few memories of the next 24 hours. One thing I do remember is a nurse named Tiffany Walls being with me most of the time, taking excellent care of my medical needs. In addition to exemplary performing all aspects of her medical assignment in the Observation Unit, Nurse Walls became an advocate for my unique position of being all alone in the hospital with no friends or family to call on and 500 miles from home. She truly went above and beyond to find ways to address the issues this caused. I remember her telling me to "take 2 big breaths" as I came out of surgery. Just knowing the sound of one person's voice (Nurse Walls) and having her by my side, strangely I never felt worried or alone. For her service above routine nursing care, please recognize her as a DAISY Nurse.