A special surprise was given to a nurse at Greenwich Hospital Tuesday known for going above and beyond with COVID-19 patients.
Nurse Ellen Stacom was presented with the prestigious DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses by hospital leaders, recognizing outstanding care and compassion.
Stacom doesn't usually work in the intensive care unit but was redeployed to the ICU when the pandemic hit. There, she earned the nickname "the Zoom nurse."
"The joke of my family is I can't even use a remote without having to call my kids to ask for help, so the fact that I was a Zoom nurse really is quite comical," she says.
Stacom saw how scared and lonely patients were and organized daily virtual visits with their loved ones, offering comfort during the scariest times.
COVID-19 survivor Gabriel Cid was invited to help honor Stacom, after he left the hospital in May following 30 days in the ICU on a ventilator.
"Every doctor and nurse, they're angels and I just can't imagine how they do this every day," he says.
Stacom used Zoom with Cid's family every day, even when he was unconscious, so they could pray with him.
"That moment when I was about to go on the ventilator, and she saw that fear in my eyes and for her to hold my hand, and ask to pray with me, that was something I'll never forget the rest of my life," he says. "They would do a lot of these prayers in Spanish, so Nurse Ellen would hold my hand and she was kind of the symbol of my family with me in the room... that's where she went above and beyond."
Cid says that Nurse Ellen and her colleagues have inspired him every day since he left, not just in his physical recovery but to be a better husband, father and person.