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To some, a patient means more than one The most recent winner of the DAISY Award is Rob Rodrigues, R.N., Emergency and Critical Services. This award for extraordinary nurses is given by the DAISY (Diseases Attacking the Immune System) Foundation and co-sponsored by Sandpiper Retirement Community, a continuum of care retirement community in Mount Pleasant. The award is given to an MUSC nurse who embodies the efforts and vast knowledge required of a nurse in today’s health care system.   Written by Mike Norris, R.N., Emergency Services, and Sarah Howell, R.N., of Emergency Services, the following is Rodrigues’ nomination: A new chapter In the last book of “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle, the main characters of the story are killed in a train accident and finally arrive in Narnia, the magical land that provides the backdrop for every story in the earlier Chronicles. They meet Aslan, who is lord of Narnia, and thus the story goes: “ ‘There was a real railway accident,’ said Aslan softly. ‘Your father and mother and all of you are, as you used to call it in the Shadow-Lands, dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after.’ But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” (Lewis, chap. 16, pp. 183-184)   A few days ago, a tragic accident occurred in which a 20- year-old woman traveling to Myrtle Beach was involved in a motor vehicle crash that all but took her life. She was flown to MUSC’s trauma center, and on arrival to 1 West it was concluded that, due to her injuries, she had little to no brain function. Upon realization of the prognosis, Rob Rodrigues, R.N., who had been battling to preserve what could be preserved of her life, moved on to what he considered to be of greatest priority, the young woman’s family. Some research revealed that her mother lived in New Jersey, and that her brother was still in Myrtle Beach. Rob spoke with the brother on the phone and told him how to get to MUSC and where to go, then moved on to the more challenging task of speaking to the mother. As any mother would be, she was anxious and crazed, crying about her “baby girl” and somehow conveying the information that she had no means by which to purchase a plane ticket and no other transportation. Rob comforted her over the phone and then got to work. He called an airline and spoke with them about the mother’s special situation, but because of heightened security and the airline’s hesitancy concerning any such case, it was no small undertaking. Rob remained on the phone with the airline for three hours that day, never quitting until he was certain the mother was sitting on the plane safely. While the mother was traveling, the patient’s brother was getting closer, and when he called Rob for directions through downtown Charleston, Rob met him in the parking lot and walked him into the hospital where he saw his sister for the first time. When it was time for her to be transported to STICU, Rob went with the family and stayed with them  for an hour, answering questions, comforting them, and helping them through those initial painful moments of the grieving process. Rob had done a fine job of working to improve the patient’s outcome when she first arrived, and if that had been all he had done, one could say he was doing his job well. But, Rob knew that the real patient in that situation was her family, and he did not back down from the grave task of caring for them emotionally, spiritually, and even physically. We all learned from Rob that day that even when it may seem that the main task has been accomplished, even when the last thing that can be done for a patient has been done as health care workers, we move on to what may be the greater and more central task of caring for the family. You see, for us, standing around the dying patient in Bed 1, the story was over. There was no medicine that could cure her, no magic touch that could change what had happened and reverse the awful truth, no more to do, no more to say. But for her family, a story had just begun, Chapter 1, first sentence: Life without our daughter and sister. And somehow, Rob Rodrigues saw that his duty transcended that finality we all felt, his life melded with theirs, and he stepped into the new story, holding their hands through the dreariest part of the plot, because for them, it was only the beginning of the real story.   All DAISY Award winners receive an African Shona Tribe sculpture entitled, “A Healer’s Touch,” a framed certificate, a daisy bouquet, and a DAISY Award pin. The DAISY Foundation also provides cinnamon rolls for all the nurses in the winner’s unit. MUSC is among 50 medical facilities honoring nurses with the DAISY Award. This is one initiative of the foundation whose overall goal is to help fight diseases of the immune system.     Friday, Dec. 1, 2006 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. 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