SALISBURY – Beth Buckingham, RN, and Tracy Vazquez, RN, of TidalHealth Peninsula Regional’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU), have been selected as the December 2024 recipients of the DAISY Award for their compassionate care and special attention provided to a recent patient and family during an extremely emotional and traumatic time.
In her nomination, a coworker wrote:
“Recently, a young trauma patient was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Team members worked diligently to care for him and to support his parents. Unfortunately, the patient did not show signs of a meaningful neurological recovery.
The patient’s parents and grandparents were faced with the difficult decision whether to proceed with our rescue efforts or allow the patient to pass comfortably given his poor prognosis. The family opted to let him pass, but they were then presented with another option of their son becoming an organ donor, potentially saving another life.
Heroically and very honorably, the parents saw the value in this, and wanted their son’s death to mean something, opted to pursue organ donation. Not only is the nurse caring for this patient focused on caring for the family during this difficult time, the way they care for the patient completely shifts.
It is a delicate process, in many ways, and it takes time. This patient’s family had established a strong rapport with both Beth and Tracy and trusted them immensely in caring for their son. At times, they were faced with discussions and decisions that were not making sense to them given the complicated situation to the point where they were not allowing diagnostic tests that were necessary for the donation process. Beth took it upon herself to sit with the mother and connect on her level to explain what was happening. Because Beth took the time to connect with her as a mother, she then agreed to the tests
The day before the patient was scheduled to go to the operating room and do this honorable deed of saving another’s life, the family again had some reservations about the process. Tracy eased some of these reservations by rearranging her schedule so she would be caring for the patient on the day he was to go to the OR. When the family knew Tracy would be with him and them, the family felt more at ease.
However, their remaining reservations presented a significant barrier to proceeding with organ donation. Beth was assigned to the patient on this day. Knowing that she and Tracy had developed this rapport with the patient’s mother, she asked Tracy to accompany her to talk with the mother. Because these two took the time to truly hear her questions and concerns and thoroughly explain all aspects of the process, and because they had gained the mother’s trust, the family agreed to proceed with organ donation.
The patient was able to donate his liver to a patient in their 60’s, his right kidney to a patient in their 30’s and his left kidney and pancreas to a patient in their 30’s. He gave the gift of life to three individuals and he and his family should be considered heroes for this act. The other heroes in this story are these two nurses who were patient, thorough, and kind in their care of this patient and his family.
The patient’s mother recognized both Beth and Tracy saying, ‘they called him by his name and talked to him even though they didn’t know if he could hear them, and they treated him like their own’.”
Buckingham and Vazquez were recently honored with the DAISY Award in a ceremony before their colleagues. They received certificates commending them for being extraordinary nurses, and a sculpture called A Healer’s Touch, hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe.
The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation is based in Glen Ellen, Calif., and was established by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. Barnes died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little-known but not uncommon autoimmune disease.
The care Barnes and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families.
