Brittany Tatro
February 2015
Brittany
Tatro
,
BSN, RN
PICU
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
Pittsburgh
,
PA
United States

 

 

 

On an extremely busy day in the PICU, I was asked by the clinical leader to help finish getting charge report. As I was sitting down to get my last report on a patient, I started listening to the details from her orientee outside the room, so incredibly sad.

This beautiful young teenage girl died suddenly and tragically. Her family gracefully decided to donate her organs. The nurse and her orientee told me that she was she was scheduled to go to the OR at 3am to donate. At that time, I looked up so I could see the patient, but what took my attention was one of the most compassionate and beautiful things I have ever witnessed in the PICU. The nurse was sitting very closely to the girl and was holding her hand. In awe of her, I said, "are you holding her hand"? She replied, yes, I could not let her be alone. Her parents had said their goodbyes and left and CORE was now caring for her until organ recovery. It was so genuine, I told her that she was a kind soul and that the parents would be so grateful for her doing this. As a parent of two young girls, this moment really struck me. I was so honored to call her my peer, what a beautiful testimony to nursing and what it is truly about taking the time to be with that sweet girl. Both of our eyes welled up, of course not the first time either one of us had seen horrific tragedy, but it was how she went above and beyond for her patient. For this reason, I am nominating Brittany Tatro for the esteemed DAISY Award.