DAISY Award Winners: Angie Simpkins, Carmen Grissom, Deb Caroline and Beth Hilbelink

Four nurses at Parkwest Medical Center were honored recently with The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. This award is part of the DAISY Foundation’s program to recognize the super-human efforts nurses perform every day. The DAISY Award was established in 1999 by the family of a patient who had received extraordinary care and compassion from his nurses during his final days.

Congratulations to Angie, Carmen, Deb and Beth for being recognized each with the DAISY award. They were all nominated by a patient’s husband for the compassion and care they showed to him and his wife during the delivery of their baby boy. Read their nomination below:

Angie, Carmen, Deb and Beth’s nomination

“My wife and I are in our forties and 13 years ago, with lots of help, we had what we thought was our miracle baby but on Valentine’s Day of this year we had another baby.

So, what started as a wonderful miracle for us, could have been a great tragedy. When my wife’s water broke, we came to the hospital. We came to the hospital and were set up in a beautiful room immediately. The nurses immediately noticed baby’s heartbeat was disappearing during contractions and what seemed to be instantaneous, a whole time of people were in our room. There was a lot going on and it took us by surprise, and we were in a bit of a panic.

My wife was rushed in for an emergency C-section. Within minutes, Carmen brought me pictures of my baby boy and shortly after, I was holding my perfect baby boy as we waited for mama to come through recovery.

It turns out our baby had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck twice. If our health team had not responded as they did, today could have been one of the biggest tragedies of our life.

We are so grateful for our nurses Deb, Angie, Carmen and Beth and everything they did to keep our family safe. We are eternally in your debt. May God bless each and every one of you and shower favor on you and your families.

The care we have had from that point on are nothing short of spectacular. We are thankful for the lactation consultants, nursery staff, pediatricians, the wonderful people that cleaned the room and those that parked the car. We are truly overwhelmed with gratitude.

Please know you are appreciated and to the people who are involved in making Covenant this awesome! Thank you!”

About the Author

Covenant Health

Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, Covenant Health is a community-owned, healthcare enterprise committed to providing the right care at the right time and place. Covenant Health is the area’s largest employer and has more than 11,000 compassionate caregivers, expert clinicians, and dedicated employees and volunteers.