Maria De Angelis is a real-life superhero. There are no words to describe how her outstanding, compassionate care as a GI transplant Nurse Practitioner at SickKids has impacted our son's health and our family. She is one of the main reasons that our son is alive today and the reason that our family can function day-to-day with some semblance of normalcy, despite the myriad of medical challenges we face. She makes the impossible possible.
Maria is exceptionally skilled, dedicated, brilliant, kind but most of all, her compassionate care for our son and our family has impacted us so deeply. Her warmth, positive energy, and love for her patients are evident in everything she does. She always goes way above and beyond. We met Maria when our son was only 6 months old, and he was experiencing liver failure and we had very little hope and options for a positive outcome. Maria and the liver transplant team came into our lives and things began to shift. Through surgeries, procedures, countless hospital stays, clinic appointments, medical tests, and family meetings with a variety of different medical teams all over the hospital and in our community, Maria has been there. Most of all, she has been there for our son's milestones big and small, and through lots of laughter and lots of tears.
Today, he is an 11-year-old boy who is medically fragile, in a wheelchair, non-verbal, g-tube fed, profoundly hearing impaired in both ears, and a liver transplant recipient. Because of Maria's presence in our lives, our son goes to school, loves to spend time with his brother and sister, and enjoys weekly family dinners with his cousins and grandparents. He loves playing ball and going for walks. We are forever grateful for having Maria as part of our SickKids team and family. She makes the world a better place. The definition of a true superhero.