Our 75-year-old father was admitted to the hospital unexpectedly. He lost function of his legs in one day and it was all very unexpected for our family. The hospital moved our room to our nurse’s area. Michael was our nurse for 3 days. None of us had ever experienced a nurse with such compassion, energy, and the ability to normalize and comfort all of us in a unique way that each one of us needed. He was able to walk into the room and read to each sibling/or visitor, and he could make them feel comforted and a part of what was happening with Dad, all while taking time to care for our father. His ability to read each individual's status of emotion was incredible. He could walk in the room knowing when to joke, when to show silence, and when to engage in conversation, and he had this unique ability to make all of us feel like our dad and each one of us was the most important person in the world. That made the biggest difference between him and every other person we encountered. We knew when he walked in that we were the most important person in his work day at the moment.

Michael was able to help us understand everything that was happening in terms that we could comprehend. Nurses are so busy, but he made sure we never felt that he was rushing us. I don’t know how he did it, but as our father was diagnosed with a death sentence, he was able to comfort and cause our whole family to unite together and accept what we were hearing and understanding.

Michael is an incredible individual, and God gave him very special talents; he is right where he belongs, and I am 100% sure that every patient he has is the most important in his world. I pray that he will be given this award; he deserves it for sure. He is nothing short of a miracle nurse for so many patients.