DAISY Award
Congratulations to Michelle Oddi
Michelle Oddi PhD, RN, CCRN, CFRN, C-NPT
Children's Hospital Critical Care Transport Team
Michelle has been a member of the Children's Hospital Critical Care Transport team for 5 years. Last summer, during the overwhelming fires that consumed Redding, she was a key member in facilitating the evacuation of several critical neonates from Mercy Redding to UC Davis Medical Center. Michelle’s extensive background in flight medicine enabled her to think outside of the box in this unique situation. She worked with the Dignity Health transfer center along with the UC Davis transfer center to develop a plan to quickly and safely transport the infants down to UC Davis Medical Center. She assisted in dispatching our in hospital NICU transport team to transport one infant in a rotor wing helicopter while she herself prepared to transport another infant in a fixed wing aircraft. She traveled to Mercy Redding in the aircraft with another CCT Nurse, Brooke, through the smoke and fires all while displaying great courage. Upon arrival to Mercy Redding, she assumed care of a critically ill infant who was born at just 25 weeks gestation and who was spending time in the NICU gaining weight and growing from its initial weight of just over 1 lb. No family was present with the baby, so Michelle showed her compassion by ensuring the baby was kept safe and secure during the transport. She continued to provide ICU level care for the baby during their trip back to UC Davis Medical Center in the fixed wing aircraft. Because of Michelle's integrity to provide excellent care in a stressful situation, UC Davis was able to provide emergency relief to another community and the baby had a good outcome.
About the DAISY Award
The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses recognizes outstanding members of the nursing community and the very special work they do every day. It was established by the DAISY Foundation in memory of the extraordinary nursing J. Patrick Barnes received when he was hospitalized. (DAISY is an acronym for diseases attacking the immune system.) This nursing recognition award program offers patients, families, and professional colleagues a way to honor nurses for all they do. The DAISY awardees consistently demonstrate excellence through their clinical expertise and extraordinary compassionate care.