My son has had some health challenges since he was a young child. Over the years, he has been admitted for non-elective treatment at least eight times and for elective procedures and/or treatments many times on top of that. We've had many thoughts about the care we received at CHOA. Sometimes we have shared our thoughts about various aspects of the care my son has received at CHOA. In general, we have been very pleased with the nurses and support staff that have cared for our son over the years. Unfortunately, it is human nature to keep silent when things are going well and to only make noise when there's a problem. After my son's hospitalization in 2021 for pneumonia, I resolved to write a letter praising the care my son received and to specifically call out the efforts of one nurse whose care was in my opinion above and beyond what anyone could reasonably expect. Due to the birth of our daughter the same week and also due to the passing of my mother of blessed memory, I experienced difficulty making time to write this letter; always planning to take care of it "as soon as I could," but never seeming to have the proper time to devote to the letter. When my son was again hospitalized this past week, I realized how long it has been since I resolved to send this letter and decided to send this letter within a week of getting home. I hope the length of time that has passed since 2021 will not be misconstrued by anyone as somehow diminishing the feedback I am providing (e.g., "...if it was important enough to write, it would have been done sooner, etc."). Before providing my thoughts, however, I feel it would be appropriate to provide some background that I hope will aid in a better understanding, framing, and appreciating my feedback. From the time I was a young child, I wanted to pursue a career in medicine. My father, however, strongly urged me not to do so. My father was chief of staff for numerous years at our hometown hospital and was a well-respected surgeon. My sisters and I all worked at the hospital as aides/orderlies and/or volunteered in a host of positions over the years including working in the ER, OR, pediatrics, the surgery and general medical wings, the ICU, and in other parts of the hospital. I also worked at my father's busy medical office as an aide and assisted with in-office surgical procedures as appropriate and other appropriate functions involving caring for patients. I learned a great deal from a great teacher who would always take time to share his knowledge (e.g., demonstrating how to read and interpret x-rays, teaching how to listen to lungs, etc.). Possibly the most valuable part of my medical experience, however, was seeing what it is like to be a caregiver in a formal medical setting. It is specifically through my understanding of what it means to care for others that I view caregivers in a hospital. As I am tough on myself and demand the best from myself when helping others, I similarly expect a lot from caregivers. The nurses who have cared for my son at CHOA have almost always met my high expectations over the years. It is because one person has exceeded my expectations so much that I feel compelled to call that out and bring that to your attention. During our hospitalization, we had exceptional nurses during the night and day shifts. By "exceptional," I mean for the most part exceeding my expectations. I remember remarking to my father that it was the best nursing I had ever seen during that admission. It would have been better for me to commend each of the nurses by name at the time, but I can honestly say that one particular nurse stood out even among that wonderful group. Specifically, during several night shifts, we had a nurse named Haley O'Toole who really stood out as going above and beyond in many ways. I wanted to let CHOA know how amazing she was as a caregiver and let you know how much that helped make our stay more tolerable. I also wanted to provide some examples of things she did that improved our experience.  There really is too much to list, so understand these are just some examples.  During the night shifts of our hospitalization, Ms. O'Toole did her utmost to avoid sleep disruptions. She proved that you can, in fact, get sleep in the hospital. l credit this with helping my son recover quicker and probably helped save my health as I was severely sleep deprived when my son was hospitalized. She is also extremely organized with her management of IVs and medication. Ms. O'Toole impressed me greatly when I realized that she set a timer on her smartwatch every single time she reset the IV program and/or each time she started administering an IV drug (e.g., antibiotics). Instead of the pumps beeping incessantly when the program(s) were completed, she would enter the room about 30 seconds before the program ended and push the stop button right as the countdown timer reached zero. She did not miss the countdown a single time in any of the multiple shifts she worked with us. I was thinking about how organized you have to be to do this for a single room -let alone when you're caring for patients in multiple rooms and have to manage these times to allow for walking between rooms; being asked for something unexpected; etc. I was (and still am) extremely impressed by the fact that she did this successfully. Certainly, this was not expected of her or anyone else and therefore this was very impressive. She is kind and gentle. Ms. O'Toole was extremely kind, patient, gentle, and sweet with my son; who over the years has been traumatized by some caregivers. She made time to speak to him about something other than his health challenge of the moment, such as asking about books he was reading or puzzles or toys he was playing with. She was just exceptionally gentle and kind and projected the image of someone who cares deeply about those around her. She treated him like a grandson and just always smiled, and spoke in a kind tone. Again, this was very impressive and I think it improved my son's demeanor and accelerated his recovery. She would always stop by to ask if anything was needed when we were awake. Ms. O'Toole would periodically and it seemed regularly stop at the room "just to ask" if anything was needed. If the answer was yes, then she would immediately take care of it. While I've sometimes had nurses forget things (and I totally understand that), nothing seemed insignificant to Ms. O'Toole and she always immediately addressed anything that was needed or sent someone in her place. Because I worked in a hospital and similar settings, I try very hard to ask for things as rarely as possible, but I found Ms. O'Toole asking me what was needed and/or suggesting things that may be needed. Again, I was very impressed by this.  Ms. O'Toole also repeatedly offered to take care of anything (and I mean anything) that was needed in the room. For example, my son was unable to get to the bathroom and instead had to use a portable potty for part of his stay. At one point he had an accident. When Ms. O'Toole entered the room right around that time, I asked her if she could disconnect something (I can't recall exactly if it was an IV line or something else) so 1 could clean him up. She offered several times (while I was cleaning him) to clean him up and change his sheets etc., but I indicated that I didn't mind taking care of it. It just seemed that Ms. O'Toole was just trying to help as much as possible to make our stay as tolerable as possible and she succeeded. When I found out I'd have to temporarily step out of the room for about five or ten minutes to meet someone bringing us supplies for the room, I let Ms. O'Toole know that I would be right back in case anything needed my attention and planned to time it for when my son was sleeping so he hopefully wouldn't notice me out of the room. Ms. O'Toole offered to schedule coming in the room for vitals and/or other necessary care for that specific time so that my son wouldn't be alone when I stepped out of the room. Overall, she really cared for his well-being and went out of her way to help him (and me). The value of this type of care cannot be measured. There were so many other things that happened during that stay that impressed me and I can't list each one of those things. Probably the best measure of how good her care was is that from admission to discharge, and even to this day I repeatedly think that she was the best nurse I'd ever seen. I feel terrible that it took me so long to recognize her amazing efforts on our behalf and to formally send my thanks to CHOA for this amazing experience and amazing caregiver. I hope you can convey to her how much her care meant and how much it was appreciated by us. Please note that this letter is not meant to diminish in any way the amazing care we received from the second-floor nursing staff during this last admission or during any of our previous admissions.  We send a huge thank you to everyone for tirelessly caring for us and making our time there as painless as possible.