January 2022
Julia
Ferreira-Alves
,
BSN, RN
2NE/NTU
Primary Children's Hospital- Intermountain Health
Salt Lake City
,
UT
United States
Throughout the whole 5 months of A being inpatient, Julia has come with her smile and words of encouragement.
My daughter was diagnosed with AML. Julia was our nurse that day and came in with the team to tell us what they had diagnosed. I remember feeling like my heart was breaking in two. I looked up and Julia was crying in the background. She gave us phenomenal care that day. The next time we had Julia as our nurse was 10 days after the diagnosis. I was going to leave my daughter to spend the night with my husband at a hotel about 10 mins away from PCH. It was the first time I was leaving her since her diagnosis and I almost could not breathe at the thought of it. I remember turning to Julia and crying. She hugged me and said, "I'll take care of her mamma bear". She has called me that ever since. Julia was there when we had to shave my daughter's head. She was there during a horrendous 5-hour nosebleed. She was there when she was fevering so bad she could hardly move. Where Julia went above and beyond was that she would come to the unit after her long shifts on other floors to find out how A was doing. If A was having a down day, Julia knew how to make her smile! Throughout the whole 5 months of A being inpatient, Julia has come with her smile and words of encouragement. She never leaves without getting a mamma bear hug from me, which helps my heart as well. Julia has been an Extraordinary Nurse. As my daughter said on one of her hardest days during chemo, "Julia knew I needed to smile today, she is my angel!" I cannot relay enough in words how much her care has influenced and helped my daughter fight this horrific diagnosis of cancer.