Elizabeth Hinchman
July 2021
Elizabeth
Hinchman
,
CPQA, NP (BC)
SAFTeam
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford
Palo Alto
,
CA
United States
Everything was done to keep my son’s dignity.
Our son is a teenager, over six feet tall and 200 pounds. He has nonverbal autism, seizures, profound intellectual disability, and at the moment, behavior issues. The last time we tried to get our son to his pediatrician, he ran into the traffic to avoid going to the doctor. My husband and I were hardly able to get him off the street. This was terrible that we were not able to give our son the medical attention he needs. Due to COVID, we were able to get telemedicine appointments. We were scheduled for an MRI at Stanford and Elizabeth was wonderful. She organized the blood draw under anesthesia, I was able to take photos for the dermatologist, and we did genetic testing all during the anesthesia for the MRI.
Recently, we asked Elizabeth if there would be a possibility to bring our son in for the COVID shot. She went ahead organized a clinic inside the hospital. Today we came in for the shot. She greeted us at the entrance and brought us into a room nearby. She organized four security officers to help holding our son. Our son tried to bite and kick, but everyone was trained so well, and our son was calm after the shot. We were even given an iPad to watch Baby Einstein and some popsicles. After the 15-minute observation, we were accompanied to the car. In the entrance hall, our son had a meltdown and didn’t want to get into the car, but the wonderful officers helped us so much. Everything was controlled by Elizabeth who made sure other patients were safely redirected out of our son’s area to keep everyone safe. It was so impressive. Everything was done to keep my son’s dignity. I am a retired ER RN and can really appreciate the time and effort Elizabeth put in to have everything so smoothly arranged. She made it possible to have a special needs kid with severe behavior issues evaluated and vaccinated. My husband and I are so grateful to have had the pleasure to meet Elizabeth.
Recently, we asked Elizabeth if there would be a possibility to bring our son in for the COVID shot. She went ahead organized a clinic inside the hospital. Today we came in for the shot. She greeted us at the entrance and brought us into a room nearby. She organized four security officers to help holding our son. Our son tried to bite and kick, but everyone was trained so well, and our son was calm after the shot. We were even given an iPad to watch Baby Einstein and some popsicles. After the 15-minute observation, we were accompanied to the car. In the entrance hall, our son had a meltdown and didn’t want to get into the car, but the wonderful officers helped us so much. Everything was controlled by Elizabeth who made sure other patients were safely redirected out of our son’s area to keep everyone safe. It was so impressive. Everything was done to keep my son’s dignity. I am a retired ER RN and can really appreciate the time and effort Elizabeth put in to have everything so smoothly arranged. She made it possible to have a special needs kid with severe behavior issues evaluated and vaccinated. My husband and I are so grateful to have had the pleasure to meet Elizabeth.