For most of us, the hospital is a scary place to be. This was particularly true for my father, who had never actually sought medical attention in all the 30 years of my life. So when he fell ill with necrotizing fasciitis and had to be rushed to Ventura Community Memorial Hospital for emergency surgery, it is safe to say we both were terrified. I hopped on a plane from my home in Boston, with my sister and my newborn daughter, and we were in California by noon the next day.
After four successful surgeries, my dad was moved out of ICU and to the 6th floor of VCM with two gaping wounds in his pelvic region, one 11 centimeters and the other 17 centimeters deep, and that was where we met Daphne Hodges. Her reputation as a Wound, Ostomy, and Continence nurse preceded her, and we anticipated meeting her because we were told she and her wound vac could heal even the most gruesome lacerations like my father had. We were excited to hear about this possible course of treatment, but upon meeting and getting to know Daphne, she proved to be far more impressive than our expectations.
She has a knowledgeable and no-nonsense demeanor that sets both patients and family members at ease, and a caring yet authoritative personality that lends one to trust her automatically and completely. Not only did she provide my father with excellent care with professionalism, she was an exemplarfor bedside manner. For the two months of my father's hospitalization and healing, she became our rock.
Daphne was able to affix the wound vac to the smaller of the two wounds and heal it almost completely and perfectly, in record time. The other wound was just too cumbersome for a wound vac to seal, so instead, she packed it and repacked it numerous times with the utmost professionalism, always making my dad feel at ease, despite the most embarrassing location of his wounds. She also set him up with a colostomy bag, which could have been awkward, were it not for her friendly and forthright personality, which helped my dad feel like going to the bathroom in a bag out of his side was not a dehumanizing situation. And she had no problem bantering with Dad to keep his spirits high and deflected his inappropriate jokes with aplomb and a smile.
Even when my dad's healing had progressed enough that health insurance required a reduction in his care and his relocation to a swing bed in another hospital, Daphne fought to continue to keep him under his care, while also quelling his fears about leaving VCM too soon.
Countless times over his two-month recovery, Daphne was always there to support both my father, my sister, and me. My sister is an aspiring doctor, so Daphne kindly explained and discussed each medical procedure associated with his care with her, so that not only was she there to love and support Dad, it was also an educational experience for her. When the primary care physicians and the on-staff nurses at the other hospital decided it was best to eliminate Dad's dependence on Dilaudid cold turkey, Daphne calmed me and quieted my fears as I frantically called from Massachusetts, worried about my dad and being 3,000 miles away from him during such a harrowing time. Because she was there with him, I knew he would be okay.
Daphne is a true DAISY Nurse, not just because of her excellence in her field, but also for her humanity and demonstrations of such kindness to my family. I had the misfortune of being in California to visit my dad during the Thomas Fire incident. Daphne knew I was alone there with my daughter and had nowhere to go during the evacuation, and so she called me personally, just to make sure we were okay. Her concern during that perilous time meant so much to me, and when she saw me again at the end of the week, she even brought a few of her daughter's old toys for my baby girl to play with.
Even after his discharge, Daphne has continued to be a resource for my dad and our family in his continued medical care. Not many patients have survived an infection as advanced and wide-spread as my father had, and I know I have Daphne to thank for his speedy and complete recovery and her care transformed an unnerving situation into something manageable we were able to overcome.