Vickie consistently exemplifies our core values of Commitment, Caring, Teamwork and Integrity. Vickie was the primary nurse caring for one of our patients on the Intensive Care Unit in August 2014. The patient was a young 18 year old girl that was essentially dying. The patient's mother had decided, with the help of our physicians and nursing staff, that enough was enough. She had accepted her daughter would not survive, and made the decision to DLS.

Vickie found out that the patient's mother was from out of state, and had her 12 year old son here with her at the hospital, sleeping out in the waiting room. When Vickie found out about this, she immediately got the family a sleep room on the pediatrics unit. The patient's mother told Vickie that her own family had not offered to bring her any clothes or food. Vickie went to the cafeteria and told the cashier to let the son get what he wanted and put it on her badge. When the patient died, Vickie made keepsakes for the patient's mother by cutting a locket of hair and make an impression of her fingerprint, placing them in a memory box along with a beautiful prayer shawl. The patient's mother told Vickie, "If it had not been for this hospital, and our wonderful staff, she did not think she would have made it through this." Although the outcome was tragic, I know Vickie made a difference!