CHOC Diabetes Educator Liz Beko, BSN, RN, CDE, was meeting a 12-year-old boy just admitted to the hospital and newly diagnosed with Type I Diabetes when she discovered his impending holiday plans included a trip to Canada to visit his father. Liz knew that without adequate diabetes education, this patient’s father could not take care of his son on such short notice. When she expressed her concern to the patient, the brave young man wiped his tears away and replied that it would be OK for just his brother to go and for him to stay behind.
While the patient seemed to settle for this, Liz did not. She quickly notified the CHOC Diabetes Team and the Pediatric Adolescent Diabetes Research and Education Foundation (PADRE), which funded a plane ticket for the father to come from Canada to Orange for diabetes training – all to the patient’s surprise. Truly going above the call of duty, Liz helped create a memorable holiday for a CHOC patient.
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