My brother T came to Ochsner main campus same-day outpatient surgery unit for gallbladder surgery. T is 39 years old and has Down Syndrome. His cognitive level is around 6 years old. He has a severe speech impediment so he speaks in 2–3-word phrases and his speech can be hard to understand. T experiences severe anxiety when in medical situations and environments- he is extremely afraid and often becomes unresponsive. Nurse Emily was his pre-op nurse and was phenomenal from start to finish. She spoke to T as a person, not a child or a disabled individual. She was empathetic, compassionate, and playful, and spoke to him on his level of understanding while still informing our family of what we needed to know. She joked back and forth with him to help him feel more calm- making silly faces and joking around with him. She was extremely patient and understanding with him throughout and never once rushed him. Upon learning of his fear of IVs, she had the child life specialist come and apply cooling spray during his IV insertion. He was hiding his hand underneath his body when it was time to insert the IV and she was able to patiently joke with him to gain his compliance. T has typically cried and jumped and had to be held down during previous IVs and he just scrunched up his eyes with this one- it was super smooth and almost painless. T brought a special stuffed animal with him to the hospital (“Tiny” the turtle) and Nurse Emily also set up an IV on the stuffed animal and dressed it in a hospital gown so that T and the stuffed animal were twins. This was incredibly comforting to my brother. Nurse Emily also meticulously updated each member of T’s surgery team about some of his special needs during and after surgery. She arranged for T to have my mom present with him during his recovery to help calm him and help with his care after the surgery. Nurse Emily was just like a guardian angel today for my sweet brother and my worried parents. We feel so blessed that we were lucky enough to have her as his nurse today. Thank you so much!!

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Our son T has Down Syndrome at age 39 but functioning at a 5–6-year-old level. He has a pacemaker/defibrillator and has always had trauma with hospital experiences. Today he is scheduled for gallbladder removal. When it was time to go for his pre a wonderful nurse Emily came out for him, and her warmth and assurance immediately calmed him. She joked with him and had a child specialist come to spray his arm with a cooling agent that would decrease pain when she put in an IV. She then “put in” an IV on his turtle’s arm and a pediatric gown on the turtle. She was a natural and I think has now changed his fear and anxiety about future surgeries.

Note: This is Emily's 2nd DAISY Award!