On Christmas Day, I was the charge nurse in the PICU working to make sure that all staff and families were taken care of. Our attending came up to me and mentioned in passing that transport was coming to bring a patient of ours to Emory to see her mom. I was confused and went to speak with the bedside RN to figure out what was happening. I came up to Gabby and she was beaming as she described how she was able to arrange Transport for her patient, recovering from spinal surgery, to visit her ill mother who was inpatient at Emory Hospital. This is the account from the Gabby's perspective:
"I had my patient for the past four days and today was really hard for her, she was not herself and I knew she was extremely sad. The day after her surgery which was Friday, her mom who has a severe case of lupus was admitted to Emory with Pneumonia. I came in today with the same sadness because this is my mother's birthday and literally the first time she has been alone her entire life on her birthday... So, I really wanted to do something nice for my patient in hopes that a not so ideal Christmas can be one to remember.
After secretly planning this crazy idea that I had I was able to check with Ortho, Neuro, and ICU attendings to make sure this was okay. After speaking with Dr. P., she called her people and got Transport set up for us because she is awesome! I, along with the transport team and the rest of the family, was able to truly surprise the mom with seeing her daughter for Christmas. I wish I would have recorded her reaction because it was such a priceless and beautiful moment. Tears were flowing everywhere!It is moments like these that make it worth sacrificing time with your family to take care of someone else and to see a smile on their face. A day that started out disappointing for the both of us turned out to be very joyous!"
Gabby went above and beyond to provide a Christmas present that was invaluable to the family. She looked beyond the obvious to how she could truly meet the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of her patient and family. She truly makes our PICU better and we are so thankful for her and her example.