Andrea Swiatowiec
December 2021
Andrea
Swiatowiec
,
RN
Emergency Department
Ascension Saint Alexius Medical Center
Hoffman Estates
,
IL
United States
He had nothing to divert his mind from his young, troubled life, so Andrea brought him kindness and a quiet kind of companionship since they couldn't speak.
The young patient who'd just been brought to the ER didn't seem to have anything wrong with him. He seemed neither injured nor ill. But Andrea Swiatowiec, RN, knew trauma when she saw it, and it was staring back at her through the lost eyes of a teenage boy. What she did next is the reason we're honoring her with the DAISY Award.
The details were sketchy, which was understandable given the circumstances since there was so little to understand. He was a minor and a refugee. Possibly orphaned, but no one knew for sure. He didn't speak English, and the translator could barely get him to speak at all.
He was stateless, friendless, motherless, and fatherless. And now that his foster parents had just washed their hands of him, he was homeless as well. The paperwork signed by the paramedics who left him at our doorstep described him as a "special placement," which meant he had nowhere else to go. But ER Nurse Andrea chose to take that description literally, and she made a "special place" for him here.
Our emergency department became a kind of limbo for him, and it lasted for several days while various bureaucracies tried to figure out where the nowhere boy belonged. In the meantime, the only one who claimed him was Andrea. He had no clothes, so she bought him some. He had few belongings, so she brought him things he could call his own. Something to read in his language, a few simple games, something to clean up with, a little of this and a little of that. Things. His things.
He had nothing to divert his mind from his young, troubled life, so she brought him kindness and a quiet kind of companionship since they couldn't speak. She would just be with him because he had no one else.
For a few days before he was transferred, he had a place where he belonged for a little while. He had Andrea to thank for that. And so do we.
Andrea's DAISY nomination reads, "She did all she could to lift his self-esteem and feel embraced." And we believe it. Every word. Even though we still feel a little empty about it all.
The details were sketchy, which was understandable given the circumstances since there was so little to understand. He was a minor and a refugee. Possibly orphaned, but no one knew for sure. He didn't speak English, and the translator could barely get him to speak at all.
He was stateless, friendless, motherless, and fatherless. And now that his foster parents had just washed their hands of him, he was homeless as well. The paperwork signed by the paramedics who left him at our doorstep described him as a "special placement," which meant he had nowhere else to go. But ER Nurse Andrea chose to take that description literally, and she made a "special place" for him here.
Our emergency department became a kind of limbo for him, and it lasted for several days while various bureaucracies tried to figure out where the nowhere boy belonged. In the meantime, the only one who claimed him was Andrea. He had no clothes, so she bought him some. He had few belongings, so she brought him things he could call his own. Something to read in his language, a few simple games, something to clean up with, a little of this and a little of that. Things. His things.
He had nothing to divert his mind from his young, troubled life, so she brought him kindness and a quiet kind of companionship since they couldn't speak. She would just be with him because he had no one else.
For a few days before he was transferred, he had a place where he belonged for a little while. He had Andrea to thank for that. And so do we.
Andrea's DAISY nomination reads, "She did all she could to lift his self-esteem and feel embraced." And we believe it. Every word. Even though we still feel a little empty about it all.