Our son, L, recently had the privilege of being cared for by Nurse Crystal Perez, an outstanding nurse who deserves recognition for her care in CHOC’s PICU. Our child was transferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) after undergoing brain surgery. During our 6-day stay in the PICU, we were cared for by Nurse Crystal on some days. Her selfless attitude, calm demeanor, and affectionate care for our child helped make a stressful time in our lives more manageable. When we saw Nurse Crystal in the morning, we felt relieved and comforted knowing she would be caring for him, given the trust we had in her. Nurse Crystal Perez is an exemplary nurse who goes above and beyond to care for her patients through compassion, empathy, and attention to detail.

Since meeting Crystal, we have noticed she is attentive and proactive in ensuring our little one is well cared for. Her technical knowledge was superior, and there was never any doubt about whether she knew what she was doing. Crystal was very comfortable in her profession and did not struggle with any technical aspects of her job, such as caring for our child’s brain drain, blood draws, or physical examinations. When we asked questions, she took the time to explain things clearly. Her technical knowledge and ability to communicate effectively with us were fundamental in our feeling safe under her care. When we had a question that needed to be directed to the doctors, Crystal was quick in communicating with the team and always followed up with us. She always invited us to participate when the doctors were rounding and took any concerns we raised seriously.

Our son’s recovery in the PICU required coordination with various other disciplines, such as speech, occupational, and physical therapists. Any time Crystal was with us, she was proactive in reaching out to the teams and coordinating a time that would allow them to stop by at a time that worked best for L. I think it speaks highly of Crystal’s situational awareness and leadership to manage tasks in the most efficient and caring manner. She also worked effectively with these other teams when needed, for example, to move L out of his crib so he could participate in therapy or just be held by mom. She carefully moved the necessary equipment to avoid interrupting or interfering with any monitoring.

Nurse Crystal exemplified compassion and empathy through her attentive care for our little one. One of the tasks that was challenging for us was bathing our son, who was connected with many different IV lines and two drains to his brain. Crystal was very caring about helping bathe our son; minor details were not overlooked by Crystal. She always had all the items she needed and bathed our child gently and in a caring manner so as not to disturb our child or interfere with any important things hooked up to our son. On one occasion, our son vomited right after his bath. Crystal reassured us that it was not a problem and told us not to worry. Without complaint, she diligently calmed our little boy down, then bathed him again and set him up with new linen.

Crystal Perez deserves recognition for her outstanding skills as a nurse and caretaker. Beyond her technical expertise, she is a wonderful individual who took the time to interact with our son. She would always try to make him smile and help him feel better. While it may seem insignificant, just taking a few minutes to interact with L always brightened up his day and made him feel comfortable in the hospital setting. While we were happy to leave the PICU and continue recovery on the neuroscience floor, we were sad that we would be leaving behind Nurse Crystal. We are truly appreciative of her care and very grateful. We truly feel privileged to have been under her care, and CHOC should feel proud to have an exemplary nurse like Nurse Crystal Perez.