Max turned out to be one of our favorite nurses for many reasons. Whenever we knew Max was on the next shift, our hearts were put at ease, because Max was extremely attentive to our son's care and seemed to care for him like he would his own son. Max was always on top of it all.

Max's calm presence was especially helpful. My husband slept in our son's room most nights Max was working and felt very comfortable sleeping because he knew Max would respond to our son's needs and monitors promptly. Along with being prompt, Max was also very approachable when we had questions and explained things without using confusing medical jargon.

We recall a time during one night when we saw Max holding our son feeding him a bottle. The expression on his face was one of a man doing his job with genuine care.

Another example of extraordinary compassion was when I mentioned how my wife couldn't wait for our son to be able to wear clothes for the first time since he was born. Awhile later, Max came in the room and shared how he didn't see a reason why we couldn't put our son in an outfit. We could tell Max had taken what we had shared to heart and he tried to make it a reality. It may seem small to be able to dress your son, but for my wife it was a small piece of the normal exciting moments she would have had if her son hadn't been airlifted to Madison. When Max was on shift, we knew our son was in extremely capable and caring hands. Max cared for our son, but also ended up caring for us. We will never forget Max.