Morgan
Arnold
,
BSN, RN
My son had a fall off of the bed and hit his head. I was very emotional and rushed him to our local ER. There was a fracture identified on the partial region of his skull on the CT scan and we were transferred to CHOA Egleston campus for higher acuity of care. I was very anxious the entire hour ride there and even though I'm an ER Nurse myself, in a small trauma facility, hearing an overhead page of a trauma arrival made my heart sink when it's your one and only child. We arrived just before shift change, and after imaging, we were moved from T1 to room 17. I was receiving phone call after phone call asking what happened and having to relive the situation just made me more and more emotional and just very upset at myself. I felt defeated and felt that I had let my son down for this accident. I wanted to be the one to protect him and felt that it was all my fault for why this accident occurred.
With tears in my eyes, the door opens, and I swear an angel sent from heaven walks through the door. With a smile on her face, she says "Hello, I'm going to be your nurse, and I was told I just needed to have you today because I have been in your shoes." She goes on to tell me her personal experience. Very detailed and open. She was talking to me like a friend and not as her patient’s mother. She was so attentive to not only my son's needs but to all my needs as well; from bringing me a pump to use while my son was NPO, encouraging coffee as needed, de-escalating all my worries with social work, calming me and checking on me throughout all the IV sticks for repeat blood draws when the IV lines were not working, making sure my son was taken care of with medication for pain and stuff to fidget with while procedures were going on, and making sure that I felt heard and understood with everything that was going on. I want to say the entire trauma team was amazing but Morgan was the person I needed on what was the scariest day of my entire life. She is such an amazing nurse and I feel that without her my experience there would have been completely different. She was such a huge impact during our time there and I hope that I place an impact on someone else's experience as much as this nurse did with mine. If there is anyone who deserves this recognition for extraordinary and phenomenal care, Morgan for sure deserves it.