SALISBURY – Victoria Appel, RN, of TidalHealth Peninsula Regional’s intensive care unit (ICU), has been selected as the April 2024 recipient of the Daisy Award for her care and special attention provided to a dying patient in honoring that patient’s final wish.

Her nomination, below, was written by a fellow nurse to express their appreciation for Appel’s extraordinary care:

"Recently, in the ICU, when Victoria engaged a patient who had chosen comfort care at the end of her life, the patient expressed that her final wish would be to enjoy a favorite meal of bacon and eggs.

"Although it was past 11 p.m., Victoria reached out to me, a nursing supervisor, and through the kindness of Ryan Shelton in the kitchen, we were able to honor that final wish within 15 minutes. Both the family and the patient were incredibly grateful. When finished, she informed the nursing staff that she was ready to begin the morphine infusion, which would ultimately and peacefully end her life.

"The patient passed approximately 90 minutes later, having made her own decision thanks to the kindness and advocacy of Victoria and Ryan; a gesture that is outside the realm of what is traditionally requested from our patients. Victoria also gave up her own lunch break to stay with the patient and the family at the bedside until the funeral home arrived.

"This is not an isolated act, as I have also witnessed Victoria, well after midnight, reading to an anxious and confused patient until they were able to fall asleep. She is well deserving of the Daisy Award."

Appel was recently honored with the Daisy Award in a ceremony before her colleagues. She received certificates commending her for being an extraordinary nurse, and a sculpture called A Healer’s Touch, hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe.

The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation is based in Glen Ellen, CA, and was established by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. Patrick died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little-known but not uncommon autoimmune disease.

The care Patrick and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families.