(light music)
- I've always wanted to be a nurse
since I was five years old.
It's all I've ever wanted to do,
and to be of good use to people.
(light music continues)
- Kim is deserving to be our National Hero
because she's everything that Bayada stands for.
She's compassionate, she's excellent, she's reliable.
- She has been such a selfless servant
in the realm of nursing.
And I can't even tell you how many times
we hear from clients or friends or, you know,
whisper down the lane how incredible she is
at what she does.
- She's always made that impact.
She starts that relationship from day one
and it's really special to see unfold.
And I haven't really had that many experience
with that many nurses that I've seen so many families
she's impacted, how many nurses and peers she's impacted.
- It has a great value being there for people
and fulfilling needs for people who desperately need it.
That's a huge role, you know, loving up these families
and caring for these families as well.
I just have a burden for people who are struggling,
and children who are struggling specifically.
(bright music)
- When I started working with Jax, he wasn't walking well.
He wasn't speaking a whole lot.
He would struggle a little bit socially.
He was very unsteady on his feet
and he was having somewhere upwards
of about 150, 200 seizures a day.
- Jackson's primary diagnosis is a rare form
of mitochondrial disease known as TRNT1 deficiency.
His secondary diagnosis is myoclonic epilepsy.
To have Kim in our lives is the best thing
that could have ever happened to us.
I knew from day one when I met her
that we were just going to just hit it off.
- She goes over and beyond what she should be doing,
as far as the baking.
Just the way she talks to him.
She talks to him like a human being,
and the love that she shows.
I mean, she's a mom, mom too.
- I've been working with Jackson for two years.
And in that time I've seen him progress with his language.
I've seen him learn all of his colors.
Everything that I do is a fun thing,
but it always has a therapeutic base.
- He's just able to be a normal kid.
He's able to do all of those normal experiences.
I see him constantly outside.
She would go on the trampoline with him,
'cause she's one-of-a-kind.
I have never met anybody like her.
She truly cares about her job.
And she comes to work always with a list of things
that she wants to get done.
- Lately, we've been having a lot of highs,
and I'm grateful for those.
But last winter Jackson was really, really sick.
Each day I would come in
and he would lose a little bit more ground,
and a little bit more ground, and a little bit more ground.
I would just see it.
It was a daily deterioration, you know.
And one morning at 5:00 in the morning,
I was holding him in my arms, rocking him,
and I texted Mom and I'm like,
he just has to go to the hospital.
And they go, we gotta figure this out.
We gotta figure out what's going on with him.
(somber music)
He's so full of life.
And to see him where he wanted to sleep most of the time
and couldn't do anything.
And he knew he was losing his skills.
He would have this frightened look in his eyes,
like I can't pick up the fork to feed myself, you know.
I could see the panic in his eyes,
and that's the hardest part.
The whole time he was in the hospital
I was thinking, okay, when he gets home, I wanna try this.
When he gets home, I wanna try that.
You know, he couldn't even hold his head up.
I mean, I would constantly text Mom
about how's he doing today?
Is he any better today?
Is he still having as many seizures?
Is he talking?
'Cause he'd stopped talking.
But thankfully with a lot of effort and a lot of hard work,
he's come back and he's come back stronger.
And he's the best version of himself that he's been lately.
And it's been such a gift.
'Cause I wasn't really sure we would see these days again.
So I'm really grateful for that.
We were probably at school maybe a couple of weeks.
All the children in the kindergarten class knew his name.
And as each one of those kids walked by,
I'm gonna get emotional.
He was high-fiving every kid in that line.
And that was the day that I knew that it was a success,
that we had gotten him to school,
that he was making friends, that he was happy to be there.
It was incredible.
And that's what you want, you know,
you want him to have little boy experiences.
These little victories are important.
Love is important at the end of the day.
And they teach that to you,
because they love us without condition.
They just love you.
Because you show them love, they love you back,
and they give it to you every day.
And that's just so important, so important.
I'm supposed to be there helping him,
but knowing him makes me a better person.
It really does.
It makes me learn patience and tolerance
and to be grateful for everything that we have
or the little victories in his life, you know.
When he achieves something and you see that smile,
it's everything.
It's everything.