I am writing this DAISY Award nomination on behalf of my husband, Will Bradley, who is an LVAD Coordinator at Loma Linda. As a non-clinical person, myself, I didn’t know what a DAISY Award was and had to ask Will. He explained that the award is given to recognize nurses who exemplify the art of nursing care and compassion. I asked him if he had ever one a DAISY Award and he said, “No. But it’s okay. I don’t like people making a fuss over me.” 

When I saw the stories on the One Portal about some nurses that had recently received DAISY awards I decided to read them and I was struck by something—all of the nurses that were recognized were nominated because of things that they did while on the job in the hospital. I realized then that I had to nominate Will. I want him to be recognized for what other people don’t get to see—the passion that he has for his job and the compassion that he shows his patients even after he leaves the hospital each day. 

Will has a very close relationship with most of his patients. It is not uncommon for him to get a phone call in the evening or on a weekend from a patient. Sometimes it is a simple problem like a medication refill or a forgotten appointment. Sometimes it is more serious.  

I remember one evening, the wife of one of his patients called saying that her husband was having a strange alarm related to his batteries. Will went through the steps of troubleshooting over the telephone and finally decided that the problem couldn’t be fixed over the telephone and that it also wasn’t safe for the patient to try and drive to the hospital for fear of power failure and so he left and drove to the patient’s house to investigate. Ultimately, Will was able to resolve the problem and no harm came to the patient, but he was gone for four hours. When he got home, I apologized for him having to leave so late and he just shrugged it off, “I’d rather go and have it turn out to be nothing than have something bad happen. I couldn’t live with myself”, was his response.  

Another time, when we still lived in Colorado, one of Will’s elderly patients had gone to live at the Denver Hospice and one evening, Will got a call from the woman’s daughter who was quite hysterical. She told Will that her mom was very close to death and that she just couldn’t be there to see her mom pass away but that she also didn’t want her mom to die “alone” with “nurses who were strangers”. The two women apparently had no other friends or family in Colorado and basically had only each other so Will went to the hospice and pulled up a chair and sat with his patient. Will played re-runs of The Price is Right for his patient because it was her favorite show and sat with her until she died later that night. He came home just before midnight and went to bed without saying anything and then got up at the usual time the next day and went to work.  

I think that Will’s supervisor and colleagues are aware that he is dedicated to his job because they see the long hours that he works, but I don’t know if they see the passion that he has for his work or the compassion that he has for his patients that doesn’t end when he leaves the hospital each day. He truly goes above and beyond to help people live their best life with an LVAD and he exemplifies the mission, vision, and values of Loma Linda University Medical Center.