I think of nurse Debora Lee at least once a year especially on my son's birthday which is today!!! I wanted to nominate her for some time when I saw the flyer for the DAISY Award awhile ago. My son was born one pound with quite a bit of health problems. Today we celebrate him and he is doing much better than when he was in the NICU 17 years ago.
I have so many memories- good, bad, and ugly during my time in the NICU, but nurse Debora Lee helped me out in the littlest way to her but to me, it meant a lot. To her, she probably thought she was just doing her job but she was doing so much more!!! I had to have an emergency C-section at 26 weeks because my water broke and my son's heartbeat went down with each contraction. I was sick in recovery and wanted to see my newborn son and I could not walk or move because I was in so much pain. Nurse Debora Lee took a picture of our son and developed it and gave the picture to my husband without us asking for it. She told my husband to give this picture to me because she knew a mother wants to see her new son. I was so happy to have the picture I just started crying because I was thinking about wanting a picture of my 1st born but never said anything to my husband. When my husband handed me the picture taken by nurse Lee I was shocked to see in the picture that my son had all these tubes and wires which I was not expecting but I also did not expect to give birth at 26 weeks. However, I was delighted because I got what I wanted which was a picture of my newborn son.
My son stayed in the hospital for four months and the hardest part was going home each day without our son. Nurse Lee made me feel comfortable and gave me constant updates on our son even if he wasn't her patient for that shift. She also was a good listener whenever I was emotional about our current situation she was always available and had good advice to offer.
Nurse Lee is caring and I can tell she loves her job immensely. Once I was too sick and weak to feed my son while I was in the hospital recovering and she fed him for me. She really went above and beyond her job description. The entire NICU staff was great. I even received a gift from one of the other NICU nurses who crocheted my son a little cap for his small preemie head which I still have today.
The NICU staff was amazing and I felt comfortable knowing my son was in good hands. However, nurse Debora Lee is a loving and caring nurse and she has a genuine passion for her profession. I just wanted the hospital to know that 17 years later I still think of her and the love she showed our family!!! Nurse Lee impacted our lives in such a stressful time. She helped make an unbearable situation seem a little bit more hopeful. She is a great representation of the care your establishment offers to their patients.