Halle Repass is the epitome of someone who should receive the DAISY Award. My 38-year-old husband, J, recently survived his third open-heart surgery at St. Thomas West. He was admitted to a hospital on a Sunday, transferred to St. Thomas West that Tuesday, and moved to the ICU that Wednesday night. Halle was the nurse assigned to us that Thursday morning for the day shift. I instantly felt comfortable with her the moment she walked into the room. Thursday was one of the scariest days of our lives. We were seeing multiple people all throughout the day, all with different levels of scary news, a scary prognosis, and fast decisions to make with people we didn't know, which ultimately led to the decision of my husband's third open-heart surgery scheduled for that Friday morning. Halle was there with us throughout that entire day of Thursday, caring for J, answering all of our questions, and still smiling and laughing with us in the midst of the worst moments of our lives to date. We were told that my husband would have his surgery, and then he would be left chest-open and intubated for days after the surgery, which was new to us.

I asked Halle, "As a wife, what do I do?" - since it would be a few days of him being sedated. "Do I stay at the hospital? Do I go home?" Halle, knowing we have three young sons at home, said to me, "You go home, and you sleep with your babies. We have your number, and we will call you anytime you need to know anything, and you can call us however many times you want to get an update." I took her advice with me throughout that entire weekend, and it gave me comfort in the most uneasy days of my life. I told all of our family and friends about our ICU nurse, Halle, whom I called "an absolute angel." Halle was with us all day Thursday, the day we learned the prognosis and scary plan. Halle was back with us on Friday, surgery day.

When she got there to start the day shift, she walked into the room, where multiple people were prepping to take J back to the operating room, and she walked straight to me and asked me how I was holding up. I instantly started crying, just simply seeing her, because she was the one I was most comfortable with after only knowing her for 24 hours. Throughout J's ICU stay, he had a Titans blanket. Friday, surgery day, Halle came to work in her Titans sweatshirt and told J she wore it for him. She was there all day Friday during his surgery, and I would retreat to my husband's ICU room and just found comfort talking to her and updating her with my nurse updates from the OR. She was there when J got wheeled back after surgery, and when I saw him for the first time, chest-open and intubated. I noticed she was still there at 7:45, later than when her shift ended, and she was the last person I spoke to as I left the hospital to face the weekend at home with our boys, knowing Jordan was still not awake from his surgery.

J was supposed to be woken up on Sunday, but it was too soon, per the surgeon. I got to the hospital Monday morning, and Halle was our nurse. She even said she had requested to be put back with us. I was in the ICU room with my husband and Halle from 9:00 until 2:30, when he was finally officially woken up and the breathing tube removed. She kept me company all day while I was nervous and had questions about when he would wake up. She assured me that everything that was happening was normal and that they would safely wake him up. Halle was our nurse on the three most important days of J's 17-day hospitalization: the day we received the scary prognosis, the day of his surgery, and the day he was able to safely wake up. We are both so thankful that she was placed with us in the ICU to begin with. Halle was an exceptional nurse and took the best care of Jordan, but I've told everyone that I'm convinced it was a God thing that she was placed with us because he knew I needed her in those three days even more than he did.