Shakiyla M Rogers
December 2024
Shakiyla M
Rogers
,
RN
PICU
Riley Children's Hospital at IU Health
Indianapolis
,
IN
United States
She was the first nurse who truly understood the pain I felt and talked me through her life. She was like an angel I didn’t know I needed.
My daughter’s life started out very tough. We spent our first six months with her in the NICU. She had Tetralogy of Fallot, stage 3 BPD, feeding disorders, IUGR, vermian dysgenesis, along with multiple other medical illnesses. She had her heart repaired, and she was able to come home for a few weeks with no oxygen, and that was the best three weeks I’ve ever experienced. We landed ourselves back in the PICU after we noticed our daughter coughing and saturations decreasing. We brought her to the ER at Riley and she was immediately brought back to a trauma bay on 14 liters of high flow. We spent a while in the PICU and were eventually brought to the step-down unit on the 3rd floor. Our daughter, L, made a turn for the worst and CART had to be called so she could be returned to the PICU. During this time, she had an emergency intubation.
The next day, she woke up with a temperature of 105. She then went into septic shock and was luckily saved by the doctors who were around and a lot of the team’s quick action. We also found out that she had MSSA pneumonia and has battled Klebsiella and yeast pneumonia since. Shortly after she went septic, we noticed L had a distended stomach. A CT scan was administered, and we were told that it was most likely a hematoma or an abscess. It was after surgery had tried to drain this that our worst fear had come true: our daughter had cancer. The day after her first birthday, we found out it was hepatoblastoma which is very rare. So rare that only 1/1,000,000 children are diagnosed with it every year.
I, as L’s mother, have felt the need to stay by her side each day. She went through her first round of chemotherapy and was off to a rocky start. I was so depressed and slept most of the day that ShaKiyla was our nurse. She noticed that I was crying and told me that her son had spent multiple months here in the NICU when he was born as well. She explained to me that these walls can be so depressing, especially being in a place where you experience and hear the trauma of other children daily. She was the first nurse who truly understood the pain I felt and talked me through her life. She was like an angel I didn’t know I needed. I see her when she is working, and she always makes it a point to check in. She also encouraged me for the first time in two months to leave the bedside and stay the night at home, and even just for one night. I know from speaking with other nurses that she cherished her mother deeply, and she helped take care of ShaKiyla’s son. With her passing, I cannot imagine the strength it takes to come to work each day and experience the life of a PICU nurse. I know for a fact that her mother is looking down on her with a smile on her face, knowing what a fantastic mother she is to her child, all the while coming to work and spreading her wisdom and positivity towards struggling mothers like me. I find no one more deserving of a DAISY Award than ShaKiyla. She is truly our rainbow on a cloudy day.
The next day, she woke up with a temperature of 105. She then went into septic shock and was luckily saved by the doctors who were around and a lot of the team’s quick action. We also found out that she had MSSA pneumonia and has battled Klebsiella and yeast pneumonia since. Shortly after she went septic, we noticed L had a distended stomach. A CT scan was administered, and we were told that it was most likely a hematoma or an abscess. It was after surgery had tried to drain this that our worst fear had come true: our daughter had cancer. The day after her first birthday, we found out it was hepatoblastoma which is very rare. So rare that only 1/1,000,000 children are diagnosed with it every year.
I, as L’s mother, have felt the need to stay by her side each day. She went through her first round of chemotherapy and was off to a rocky start. I was so depressed and slept most of the day that ShaKiyla was our nurse. She noticed that I was crying and told me that her son had spent multiple months here in the NICU when he was born as well. She explained to me that these walls can be so depressing, especially being in a place where you experience and hear the trauma of other children daily. She was the first nurse who truly understood the pain I felt and talked me through her life. She was like an angel I didn’t know I needed. I see her when she is working, and she always makes it a point to check in. She also encouraged me for the first time in two months to leave the bedside and stay the night at home, and even just for one night. I know from speaking with other nurses that she cherished her mother deeply, and she helped take care of ShaKiyla’s son. With her passing, I cannot imagine the strength it takes to come to work each day and experience the life of a PICU nurse. I know for a fact that her mother is looking down on her with a smile on her face, knowing what a fantastic mother she is to her child, all the while coming to work and spreading her wisdom and positivity towards struggling mothers like me. I find no one more deserving of a DAISY Award than ShaKiyla. She is truly our rainbow on a cloudy day.