Our son was injured on the second night of football practice when he landed on the football and had a grade 4 laceration to his spleen. This happened 24 hours before his 18th birthday and so while he was getting x-rays and a cat scan at Metro Hospital and we were preparing for surgery, they realized he was just shy of being 18. They then sent him and my husband by ambulance to Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.

I could go on about so many scary moments as we waited to see if the internal bleeding would stop and if he could keep his spleen (this is how they treat spleens if you are under 18). During the first 72 hours, we had such a difficult time with pain management and nurse shift changes and inconsistency, until Elizabeth came along. She had such friendly, confident, calm, kind, total understanding, and assessment of our situation. She listened to us and heard us. I asked her before she left for home if we would have her as our nurse the next day, but she said she was scheduled on another floor. But when the next day came, Elizabeth showed up as our nurse; she switched her schedule for us. She wanted to see us through.

She also made my son a bracelet in his school colors because she knew he was sad about being a senior in high school and not being able to play football anymore this season. She made birthday signs for his door and talked to me as I was sad. We had her as a nurse on the final day of our stay and she walked us out to the parking garage and to our vehicle. Elizabeth was so kind to help my son get more visitors and friends allowed in for his 18th birthday and also some football players from his high school team. This was so important for his mental and physical recovery which Elizabeth understood.