My 16-year-old daughter told me she had just taken an entire bottle of prescription antihistamine pills. She was anxious about online school beginning the next day, was sad about missing her friends, and later told me she just wanted "a break from it all." We got her to the pediatric emergency department but it was too late to pump her stomach. The last coherent thing she said to me before the ambulance took her was, "I don't want to die."

When they let me join her in the room, the nurses were working like crazy on her. She was no longer coherent. My sweet, gentle girl was combative. She was resisting and kicking and pulling away. The nurses never got flustered or frustrated with her. They kept talking to her so kindly and gently explaining that they were trying to help her. They were trying to give her medicine to sedate her, but she kept pulling out the IVs. Again, they just calmly would say, "she just pulled it out," and would try again. At one point, there were 5 or 6 people trying to hold her still. Those nurses were working so hard and she fought them every step of the way but not one of them ever got flustered. I was amazed at how focused and calm they stayed throughout it all. I had tried to stay back and out of the way but at one point, I tried talking to my daughter calmly in her ear to help calm her, but she kicked one of the nurses about that time. I said, "I'm so sorry!" The nurse calmly said, "She can't help it." I went back to the chair where I had been sitting and cried and took this picture. They worked like this for about an hour. It was physically demanding to the point they were sweating.

Once she was finally sedated and calmed, a nurse came over to me and asked me if she could get me anything. She said she can't imagine what it would feel like for a mom to have to watch all that. After all they had just done and been through, she was thinking about someone else. I just can't say enough about the professionalism and dedication of those nurses. They were focused, skilled, dedicated, passionate, and caring. They saved my child's life. Thank you isn't enough, but I want to offer my sincere thanks and appreciation for what the nurses on that night shift did for my daughter and for me so that I still have my precious baby here with me. THANK YOU!!!!!