I nominated Erika before because she literally saved my life. Literally, I was choking, and she did a Heimlich on me, and I was able to breathe. If you look at her badge, she has like (I am not kidding) about 20 DAISY nominations to date (and counting). Patients and her colleagues CONSISTENTLY commend her for being an amazing nurse. I can give you so many examples of how she cares for her patients.

Example 1: a patient did not know how to purchase a plane ticket, she went to great lengths to teach her on how to do it.

Example 2: A patient was admitted to a different hospital (Alexian brothers), when she found out, she called the MD office (in Northwestern) because the patient was not able to do it herself to notify the Northwestern MD that she was admitted (the patient has specific needs that the Alexian MD's might not be aware).

Example 3: She started on an IV on one of the patients when the other nurse was busy.

Example 4: The patient does not have any family members with him when he is getting chemo; she knows that this patient leaves at 4 am (he lives far away and has to take the train, hence an early start), so he wouldn't have a chance to get breakfast (patient also doesn't have a lot of money), she would go to the cafeteria to get him a breakfast sandwich so that he doesn't get hungry.

Example 5: Patients were going to throw the first pitch for a Cubs game, she went to the ball game (Erika doesn't normally watch baseball), so that she could go and cheer them on.

I mean I could go on and on and keep on rambling on how amazing Erika is, but I have a word limit plus it is hard to think of specific examples when she does this every day. It is hard to shout out all the extraordinary things that Erika does when her extraordinaries are part of her ordinary day. Erika is the epitome of a DAISY Nurse. She is caring, compassionate, a great team player, and always goes above and beyond to her patients and coworkers. Erika, thank you for everything you do. We are so lucky to have you!