I wanted to highlight or recognize a few Prisma health employees after a recent stay with my daughter at your Prisma Health Richland Children's Hospital. It was very early hours that I had to take my 15-year-old daughter, to the Children's ED. I brought her in because she was very lethargic, had been throwing up for hours, and was complaining of a major headache. Due to a family history of my spontaneous subdural hematoma, I felt it was urgent to bring her in. When arriving at the ED, we were immediately triaged and then sat in the waiting room for about 10-15 minutes before being called back to a room. It was then that we met Shay'ana, who would be my saving grace over the next few hours.

Some blood work as well as an MR was orderedI; all of those results came back normal, but I was concerned because most of the things were out of range.  Shay'ana, I think, could see in my heart that I was not okay with that answer but was not saying anything at that time. She came in and talked to me one-on-one and made this the most personal experience while talking through my daughters symptoms and my concerns. She offered to get the attending doctor. When he came in, he looked at my daughter on the bed and immediately said she would not be going anywhere. I think between the concern on my face and the fact she was still very lethargic and looked miserable, he knew I had a sigh of relief when he told me we would not be going anywhere. It was then that he suggested the next steps would be to do Spinal Fluid Testing, which would allow us to see if there was a previous bleed.

This is where I want to highlight again Shay'ana and her skills as a nurse. Madison was very out of it; she wasn’t sure where she was or even what was going on, but when I was asked to step out of the room for the Spinal Fluid Testing, it was then that Shay'ana took over my baby girl like she was her own. She was crying out for me, and I could hear this while standing outside her room, but it was then that I continued to hear Shay'ana talk my girl through this like she was her child—keeping her calm, telling her I was right outside the room, "Stay very still, it is almost over." It was her words that helped both me, standing outside that room, and my daughter through this traumatic experience.