February 2024
Laverne
Moore
,
RN, BSN, CEN
Emergency Department
Lutheran Kosciusko Hospital
Warsaw
,
IN
United States
When the paramedics arrived to transfer C, it was Vern who hugged me tightly and whispered encouragement in my ears.
From the moment I walked into the ER at Lutheran Kosciusko, I was treated with the greatest degree of respect and care. When my son arrived he was coherent and talking. It was not long before his fingers began to twitch, and he went into a full-blown seizure. I opened the curtain and called out for Vern. She sprang into action and was a competent, compassionate, and empathetic asset to the LKH team. While she diligently attended to my son, she made eye contact with me, aware that a terrified mom was standing by her patient. When they whisked C off to CT, she called out to me to tell me what was happening. The CT scan was done rapidly, and I am sure Vern knew pretty quickly that our lives would change forever. When the paramedics arrived to transfer C, it was Vern who hugged me tightly and whispered encouragement in my ears. As I drove to Fort Wayne, her words remained in my mind. The nightmare continued, but I felt that someone had "seen me". Vern had whispered words to indicate that they knew and I was not alone. She deserves recognition for being a rock for our family during an unthinkable set of circumstances.