Josh Villanueva cared for our son the last days of his life, which to me seem to be the most scary and stressful probably for Josh as well. W, my son, had made a final request of us all before he was to leave us that he wanted to donate his organs. This put a lot more stress on the doctors and nurses as well as W’s brain, which was swelling so Josh had to constantly be monitoring and calling to help control his blood pressure, ICP, and pain control. I still don’t know how he exactly did all of that while managing to watch the ICU door as my Husband left and came back as to never have to buzz the buzzer, but he did. He watched not only my son but also us and took the time to get to know my son as person as well as the people who came to see him and us.

Josh treated us also as a family and my son as a person not a condition. Josh was able to read us and know when we needed to talk and when we needed some space he is the perfect petal of a DAISY Award! Someone who always thinks what they do is just their job and it’s not a big deal. Without Josh’s help to monitor our son he would not have been able to give his final gift of organ donation and in doing that alone it has brought a huge amount of comfort to the loss of our W. Thank you again to all the staff in the ICU. W and I appreciate all your kindness and thoughtfulness taking care of our son while he was there. We could not have asked for better nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, X-ray techs, and countless others behind the scenes ensuring all the tests and labs were done properly. Please continue doing what you do for others.