We are pleased to announce the most recent UAB Medicine DAISY Award, recognizing the extraordinary care and compassion that nurses provide for patients and families every day. Submissions and stories are reviewed each month, and the winner is surprised at a special ceremony. You can submit a DAISY nurse nomination using this online form.
Click here to view more photos from the award presentation.
Congratulations to the most recent winner, Blair Hagood, RN. Recently, Blair shared a story about a life-changing event with his manager. The summary below was written and submitted by Blair’s manager, nominating Blair for the DAISY Award based on his heroic efforts.
“While my brother-in-law and I were fishing recently, I heard him start yelling, which he does when his seizures start. I was 100-150 yards away from him, so I threw my rod down and started towards him as fast as I could in my kayak. I yelled over to the bank to the neighbors and asked them to call 911. While I was on the way to him, he fell into the water and went under. I was hoping that he would wake up, but he did not. He was under water for about two minutes before I got to him. Once I got to him, I got him above the water and felt for a pulse. He did not have one, so I yelled to a neighbor that was on the way to us in his boat to get there faster.
Once the neighbor got there, I had to pick up my brother-in-law and push him into the boat. The deck was above my head because we were in about four feet of water with about one and a half feet of mud. My brother-in-law is not a small guy, so I had a little bit of help from the neighbor driving the boat. I got on the boat and started CPR using the 30:2 method. I did three two-minute rounds of CPR and got a pulse back. He was unresponsive for about 8-10 minutes and had a three-minute extrication from the water. Once I had a pulse back, I blew in his mouth to clear out any water, blood, and froth that was in his airway and rolled him on his side. We went back to the bank, and I continued to stabilize his airway on his side. I asked the neighbors for a toothbrush that I used to keep his mouth and airway open while waiting on emergency medical services (EMS) to arrive.
Volunteer EMS arrived after about 18 minutes and was able to provide oxygen therapy while waiting for a medic. Once the medic arrived, we got my brother-in-law off the boat and into an ambulance. The medic and I started trying to secure an airway. We were not able to get an endotracheal (ET) tube past his vocal chords, so we placed a King airway as we headed towards UAB. I alerted our team when we were on the way and gave a report.
Once we got to UAB, we pulled up to the door and off-loaded my brother-in-law. EMS cared for him while I gave a report to the team. They even had socks for me because I was barefoot. Lea, Jon, Joal Evans, Bailey, and everyone else took great and quick care of my brother-in-law. Everyone was asking if I needed anything or if they could do anything for me or our family.
I can tell you that I am proud to work in a department where everyone cares about each other and their families as much as everyone does here. Abby Evans, Abigale Kendricks, and Geniva Alexander went out of their way and got pizza for our family so we had something to eat. At the end of the day, I was only doing what we do every day, and God gave me the ability to get my brother-in-law back. I am just glad he is alive and that he has all cognition and all of his memory back.”