Lisa Bracken, who is the manager of central staffing for PRN nurses and care techs at Eskenazi Health, was excited about her daughter Taylor’s recent return to school and first practice of the season in her favorite sport.

“My daughter is 10, and it was the first day of school and the first day of cross country practice, and they were doing a running backwards drill as a warmup and a little girl tripped and fell and another girl who was running backwards tripped over her, and my daughter ended up being the third pile on. As she fell she put one arm back and she didn’t get up. She was crying and saying that her arm hurt really bad.

“I’ve worked here for 10 years as a bedside nurse and I was pretty sure we had a fracture. My husband was there, thankfully, so he got us together and got us in the car and I called ahead because I wasn’t totally sure if they wanted me to go to the pediatric urgent center or the emergency department, and they said if there was any kind of visual deformity I should just go to the emergency department, so that’s where we went.

“They got us right back and got us registered. We were in a room probably 5 to 10 minutes after arrival at the ED (emergency department), and from the very beginning, from nurses to doctors to X-ray technicians, and the lady that came in our room and registered us, literally from beginning to end, everybody was just so kind, gentle and compassionate with her. Her arm obviously hurt a lot and I was wondering how much it would be touched and messed with and the amount of gentleness and patience everybody showed was great.

“It resonated with me later that on the drive to Eskenazi Health, I kept telling her we’re not far away, we’re going to be there in about 15 minutes and you’re going to be fine as soon as we get there. As a mom you tell your kid that, but I really believed it. I knew they were going to take care of her no matter what was wrong with her whether it was a sprain, a fracture, if there was going to be surgery, and I knew she was going to be in good hands. There was not a single thought in my head that we were going to go anywhere but Eskenazi Health. Later, I felt very thankful for that.

“She ended up needing a procedure. She had to go to the shock rooms and get conscious sedation and have her arm set and casted, and I was able to stay with her the entire time. Even though I was a critical care nurse and they were very informative, they spoke in basic terms to me and didn’t assume I knew anything, but they didn’t talk to me like I was dumb. I just felt really well cared for from beginning to end.

“So we got all of that taken care of and we were able to go home at that point. We came back for a follow-up appointment and that went really well too. The orthopedic doctor was awesome and she’s healing up nicely. Considering she had three little fractures in that arm, she’s in really good shape.”