Justin Sandefur
May 2014
Justin
Sandefur
,
RN
Pediatric ICU
Dell Children's Medical Center
Austin
,
TX
United States

 

 

 

... my son was rushed to Dell with a brain tumor. We went to the doctor that day thinking it was mono. The next thing I know he was admitted with surgery on Sunday. When we arrived in ICU Justin was our nurse. Needless to say my son was in a lot of pain and his dad and I were scared to death. Justin brought us comfort by keeping us informed and mostly by instantly bonding with my son. My son starting calling him Kyle for some reason and oddly enough that was Justin's middle name. After two days they moved us up. What stands out in my mind the most is how much he cared about my son and how confident I was of his level of care. We missed him horribly when we left.

My son got sick a day later and they moved us back down. To our surprise, we got Justin back. We were very glad to see him. My son was very depressed and didn't want to get up or interact. Justin was the only person who could get him up, moving and eating. He also took the time to read his chart and recommended some medications that worked for him previously that he no longer was taking. As overwhelming as the whole process is, it is nice to have someone that helps you understand the process, goes over all the medication with you every time he gave it to my son and constantly informed us. He needed a new IV. Last time after 2 different nurses dug on him, they called in the IV team. When I told Justin that he was very confident and reassuring that he could get it done. He talked to my son the whole time and got it the first try. As of now that I'm writing this, we have been here 12 days. And don't think we haven't met some wonderful people. But no one stands out in our minds like Justin has and if we could keep him till we go home we most definitely would. This is the worst time of our life and Justin made that time very comforting to us and my son.