My daughter was admitted to P8 for a complex UTI that needed IV antibiotics. Let me start by explaining that my daughter is a very medically complex pediatric patient. She has a trach, g-tube, vent dependent at night, non-ambulatory, has a chest PORT, VP Shunt and is total care among other complex issues. As I drove two hours from our home to AFCH, the day that my daughter was to be admitted to P8, I received a call on my cell phone during that drive from Bill Yerges RN. He asked me if there was anything he could get ready for my daughter's arrival to P8. I was so impressed that someone cared enough to have everything in place for her. Upon our arrival Bill showed us to our room and had the correct bed for my daughter (an oversized crib) and suction for her trach all in place. He had a special pillowcase for her too!

Every day he came to our room (several times a day) and asked us if we needed anything and while in our room, he would interact with my daughter, who is non-verbal and she would smile and laugh! He treated my daughter like a person not just a random "patient". He put so many personal touches on everything. In addition to this, my daughter needed her chest PORT accessed because it was accidentally pulled out. My daughter's PORT is located in a difficult spot so we chose to put in a longer needle. As her mom, I am well versed in accessing my daughter's PORT but when I tried to put in the longer needle it just didn't feel right to me so I pulled it out. In the meantime we made a few more attempts with a couple other nurses and no one could successfully access it. I went to find Bill, who was the charge nurse and explain to him my concerns about several attempts to access the PORT without any success. He stepped in and decided to take it into his own hands and try to access it, and he did it with success, I was so happy! No more poking my daughter and she could get the antibiotics she desperately needed again! Also, because we live two hours away, I wanted to make sure that we could be discharged at an appropriate time in order to get my daughter's IV antibiotics delivered to our home by the time she needed her next dose. Bill got us out and discharged exactly when he said he would have us out!

He also followed up with a call to our home a few days after discharge to see if we needed anything and to see if my daughter was doing ok! I never had to worry about one thing because Bill was always thinking ahead! I am a nurse myself and I appreciate the kind of care, knowledge, and true compassion that Bill Yerges shows the patients on P8! He is an asset to this unit which gets patients with such diverse and complex needs. He allowed me to just be a mother to my sick daughter, instead of having to worry about other things. I have lived in hospitals for almost 14 years of my daughter's life and it was so refreshing to be able to just be a mother and trust that my daughter's complex needs were being handled appropriately. As a mother of a medically complex child, it means so much to me to have things in order and go smooth. It means the world to me to be able to just be a mother to my sick child and not have to worry about things not getting done or being forgotten along the way.

Personally I think all of my daughter's nurses those three days deserve an award, but I thought that Bill stood out above the rest! Bill is a wealth of knowledge, has true compassion and really understands what families with medically complex children go through on a daily basis...that kind of understanding is rare! I am so delighted, to be able have Bill Yerges as part of my daughter's medical care team! There are very few people in this world that I trust with my daughter's care and well-being and when I see something special in someone, as I do in Bill, I know he deserves to be recognized.