My 12-month old daughter underwent surgery to remove a choroid plexus tumor. The diagnosis was heartbreaking for our family, especially considering she was born with an arachnoid cyst which required placement of a ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt at only 5 days of age. Fortunately, the recent surgery was successful, and she is recovering well in the pediatric ICU.
We received exceptional medical care from all healthcare team members here at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, MI - but we wanted to recognize one particular nurse who provided the utmost patient-centric and compassionate care that any family could ask for. She went above and beyond and deserves to be recognized for her efforts.
We arrived to the PICU in the evening and Ting was our first nurse on the day shift. She said that she usually works nights but due to jury duty she was stacking her shifts on days before a short break and going back to nights on the coming weekend. How lucky were we to have her for both night and day shifts during our stay!
Each day that we had Ting she was amazing and wonderfully helpful. The first couple days our daughter was struggling to breathe well after having endured such a long surgery, and Ting sat at her bedside for hours at a time percussing and trying to help her feel more comfortable. Nursing tasks like deep nasal suction are never easy but Ting was gentle and effective which helped our daughter calm down much quicker after she was finished. She was efficient with her tasks yet didn't make anything seem like she was in a hurry. And the way she changed our sheets! Little things like that were the reason she is such a fabulous nurse. She was able to roll blankets in a way that my daughter didn't slide down in the bed and was nestled in a perfect little nest. Something like that may seem so mundane but it makes all the difference to a baby who is only able to lie in bed for most hours of the day and night. When we were able to hold our daughter again, Ting was able to arrange pillows for us to be comfortable holding her since she was not able to change positions quickly. Once she was able to sit up with some help, Ting found equipment to help her sit up.
She was slowly but surely getting stronger day-by-day. Over the days we had many nurses and as our daughter was getting better, she was able to recognize some nurses.
At first, she disliked anyone that came in because it usually meant disturbing her and subjecting her to an exam, but over the days we were in the PICU she came to enjoy seeing Ting walk in the door - even if she did come to examine her! Ting had a way of making it enjoyable for her and ensured that she trusted her when she did her job. We were so glad to have Ting as our daughter's nurse and believe she made all the difference to her while recovering from her brain surgery.