My 17-year-old son had open heart to replace a diseased aortic valve. The surgery was traumatic with a reop the evening after AM surgery. The following 5 weeks of recovery were super bumpy with us in and out of the hospital with fevers and poor recovery. We are here for our 3rd stay and now the valve is failing so my son will need another operation. Needless to say, it has been a long hard road. He is a senior in high school too missing graduation, much to grieve for a young adult. Sam impressed me and touched my heart cause the first thing he did was sit down and check on my son’s mental health. He did it in a very loving way acknowledging the journey he has been on and sitting empathetically with him as long as he needed to talk. After a very hard day of pokes and miss pokes, Sam was a welcome reprieve in the night as he took extra care to give the gentlest of blood draws and to make notes for the next nurses on what makes him most comfortable. He advocated for him in evening rounds to be able to add to his comfort measures as well. And on top of it all, he cared for me making sure I was comfortable in an extra loving way. It is hard to put into words what made his care extraordinary however I could feel his experience, skill and kindness were far beyond any experience we have had to date. He did it all with grace, ease and was humble when complimented. A truly gifted caregiver.