Kienzle Family Maternity Center Nurses Receive DAISY Award

While no one wants to be a part of someone’s “worst day of their lives,” Liz Dablock, Molly Lanza, Perrin Kaftan and Melissa Vadala were honored for their compassionate care as a family experienced a heartbreaking loss.

The patient, pregnant and herself a pediatric intensive care nurse, wrote about the day her and her husband’s life changed: when her due date arrived and her daughter’s sonogram showed no heartbeat.

She and her husband were rushed to Crouse, where she says the nurses were kind as their family arrived and in helping her as the induction process began. They anticipated she would deliver the next afternoon, but she was in active labor later that night.

“Perrin, our nurse for the night had come on and was just amazing. Our daughter was born asleep at 12:48 a.m. the next morning. Our family rushed back up by 2 a.m., and Perrin was so accommodating to everyone coming. She took amazing care of our daughter,” the patient said.

She went on to say, “As a pediatric intensive care nurse, I have been around for many children passing and now I was on the other side. I watched them do her hand and foot prints, something I’ve done more times than I can count. As I watched the nurses tear up, I knew this wasn’t easy for them and they cared about our family too, even though they’d just met us. I just want everyone to know how wonderful they were and how much they helped us through the worst day of our lives. You are all amazing!”

Thank you Liz, Molly, Perrin and Melissa for the sensitive and compassionate care you extended to this family in their time of loss.

Chief Nursing Officer Betty O’Connor, left, and Nurse Manager Sara Madison, right, presented the nurses with their awards.

About the DAISY Award
In November 1999, the family of J. Patrick Barnes formed the DAISY Foundation as a way to express their profound gratitude to nurses for the work they do for patients and their families every day. DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System. Pat died at age 33 of complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little known but not uncommon auto-immune disease. In 2015, Crouse became a DAISY-affiliated hospital, and presents an award to a deserving nurse, selected by a committee, regularly throughout the year. The DAISY Award program at Crouse has been made possible through a donation from the Crouse Hospital Medical Staff.