Our daughter was born with a severe form of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. As a result of this congenital heart defect, she had four different operations, and we have spent approximately four of the last nine months in the Pediatric Cardiothoracic Unit at Mott Children's Hospital. It was within this stressful setting that we met Tiffany Hunter. Tiffany served as our assigned nurse on many occasions throughout our stay.
I don't know whether it was Tiffany's calm demeanor, sense of humor and light-heartedness, effusive kindness, clear competence as a nurse, the combination of these winning traits, or something else altogether. But there was just something about Tiffany's presence that clicked with me. Tiffany had a gentle but confident touch with her care that put us at such ease. And that is surely saying something because there wasn't much that put us at ease in light of the intense situation in which we found ourselves for these trying months. Being a parent of a child in the ICU for that length of time can really wear on you. And so I can hardly put into words how much it meant to us that we could establish such trust in a nurse.
We were always so excited and relieved when we would find out that Tiffany was assigned to our daughter on a given day, knowing that for that 12-hour shift we could take a deep breath knowing that Tiffany had it covered just the way we would want it done. In addition to the confidence we had in Tiffany's skills as a nurse, we also reveled in those Tiffany shifts because of how approachable she was to us during them. Tiffany never made us feel as if we were being the annoying parents. Quite the opposite, Tiffany's shifts always meant we could chat with her about our daughter's status but also about anything else that might take our minds off the situation. And even when she was not assigned to us, Tiffany always made sure to find us every time she was in the PCTU to see how things were going. In other words, Tiffany was as much a trusted friend to us as she was an excellent nurse and for the better part of four full months.
Any family passing through the PCTU would be supremely lucky to have Tiffany Hunter as their nurse, just as we were. We'll never be able to repay Tiffany for her care. We are extremely grateful for her.