February 2021
Sierra
Lishman
,
RN
Emergency Department
HSHS St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital

 

 

 

We feel that we still have a daughter because of Sierra's willingness to advocate for us and our daughter.
When my daughter woke up with hives covering most of her body, I brought her to the ER. I was very scared when she went limp and appeared to not be breathing on the drive in. When we got to ER, Sierra was our nurse. She was phenomenal. She took excellent care of R and related to her well. My daughter was very sick. While in the department, her hives continued to get worse. The doctor on staff had given her some medicine and wanted to send her home. We weren't comfortable with that and Sierra agreed with us. She pushed to get her admitted or transferred. In the end, we were transferred to St. John's. Within an hour of arrival in Springfield, R's throat began to swell shut. Aggressive action was taken to help her breathe. The doctor stated the outcome would not have been so good had we not been right there in the hospital when she lost her airway.
R was discharged 3 days later. She is still on medication but doing much better. We feel that we still have a daughter because of Sierra's willingness to advocate for us and our daughter. Words cannot describe how thankful we are to have gotten a nurse who isn't afraid to go above and beyond for her patients, even when it's the exact opposite of what the doctor is recommending.
Thank you, Sierra. We will be forever grateful for the assistance, the compassion, the understanding, the information, the answers. Thank you for being a nurse.