September 2020
Kate
Stockley
,
RN
Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), Queen's Medical Hospital
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
Nottingham
United Kingdom
Kate helped us as a family to make memories with H, doing foot and handprints and involving our daughter at every step along the way making her feel valued and included.
Kate went above and beyond in caring for us and our 8-month-old baby who suffered a catastrophic bleed on the brain during a cardiac catheter procedure. He was transferred to PCCU at QMC that same day and Kate looked after us when H had an MRI scan which confirmed his entire brain was damaged and he would be starting end-of-life care. Kate was warm and friendly and a fantastic distraction for our 3-year-old daughter who was also with us at H’s bedside.
The main reason we would like to recognise Kate is because we believe she went above and beyond her job by helping us to prepare our daughter for losing H. Kate helped us as a family to make memories with H, doing foot and handprints and involving our daughter at every step along the way making her feel valued and included. She put us in touch with the bereavement team at QMC and helped us to start the conversation of death with our daughter. She helped to source a book for her and to include her when we were washing H and changing his nappy etc.
Kate is a credit to the team at PCCU, she was excellent at knowing when we needed to talk and ask questions and when we just wanted to cry or have quiet time at H’s bedside. She also helped us deal with a lot of family members visiting H to say goodbye and she helped us deal with their emotions too. She offered drinks and shared special memory stones with H’s grandparents which was a beautiful and unexpected gesture. It was clear even in a short period of time, that Kate’s compassion for H was evident when she was saying goodbye to him as her shift ended and she didn’t want to leave his bedside. With tears in her eyes knowing his ventilator would be switched off the next day and she wouldn’t see him, we were touched by the emotion and attachment that Kate had shown. Kate even was contacting the hospital on her days off for updates on what was happening with H. We are so grateful and thankful to Kate for looking after H with such dignity and respect and looking after us as a family too. Especially explaining all the options open to us with end-of-life care and what it meant and the path of organ donation (which we eventually chose).
The main reason we would like to recognise Kate is because we believe she went above and beyond her job by helping us to prepare our daughter for losing H. Kate helped us as a family to make memories with H, doing foot and handprints and involving our daughter at every step along the way making her feel valued and included. She put us in touch with the bereavement team at QMC and helped us to start the conversation of death with our daughter. She helped to source a book for her and to include her when we were washing H and changing his nappy etc.
Kate is a credit to the team at PCCU, she was excellent at knowing when we needed to talk and ask questions and when we just wanted to cry or have quiet time at H’s bedside. She also helped us deal with a lot of family members visiting H to say goodbye and she helped us deal with their emotions too. She offered drinks and shared special memory stones with H’s grandparents which was a beautiful and unexpected gesture. It was clear even in a short period of time, that Kate’s compassion for H was evident when she was saying goodbye to him as her shift ended and she didn’t want to leave his bedside. With tears in her eyes knowing his ventilator would be switched off the next day and she wouldn’t see him, we were touched by the emotion and attachment that Kate had shown. Kate even was contacting the hospital on her days off for updates on what was happening with H. We are so grateful and thankful to Kate for looking after H with such dignity and respect and looking after us as a family too. Especially explaining all the options open to us with end-of-life care and what it meant and the path of organ donation (which we eventually chose).