Memorial Announces Amanda Boutin April 2026 DAISY Award Winner

​​Congratulations to Amanda Boutin, RN a nurse in 3 Tower Sugical ICU at Lake Charles Memorial Health System. She was nominated by a coworker for the extraordinary and compassionate care she gave to a patient's family.

From the nominator:

Working with Amanda for a couple of years, there are many instances where I see how compassionate and caring a nurse she is. There is one patient who stuck out to me that I felt compelled to write this nomination. Over the weekend, a gentleman came in with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and Amanda and her orientee ended up taking that admit. The patient was a very young man with a young child, and his encounter in the ICU was very emotional for all involved. Even though he was only in our care for a very short amount of time, Amanda developed a bond and relationship with the patient’s family. Ensuring all their needs were attended to during this difficult time in their lives. Amanda was there for this family throughout his entire hospital stay and insisted that she be the nurse to continue his care during his stay.

Soon after the patient was admitted to the hospital, the family made the decision to donate his organs. During the family’s last moments in the hospital room with their family members, Amanda went into the room to give her final condolences to the patient’s mother. After exchanging her condolences, Amanda handed the patient’s mother a letter she had written expressing how fortunate she felt to care for the patient and to get the opportunity to get to know him through their stories and memories. She commended the family on their decision to donate his life, offering other patients a priceless gift. They shared this final emotional moment during the last hours this patient was in our care. During this moment of loss and devastation, I know this mother will look back at this time, and I have no doubt that she will remember Amanda. She will remember her smile. She will remember her exceptional care and compassion for her son. She will remember that moment in that hospital room where Amanda took the time to share the memories of her son.

In the ICU, situations like these are unfortunately not uncommon, but seeing a nurse take the extra time to support a family in these moments makes me proud to work alongside team members like these. Amanda embodies what it means to truly be an extraordinary nurse, and this is just a snapshot of the compassionate care I see her provide every day she is on shift.

About DAISY:

In late 1999, at the age of 33, Patrick Barnes awoke with some blood blisters in his mouth. Having survived Hodgkin's Disease twice, he was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with the auto-immune disease, ITP (Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura).

Said his father, Mark Barnes, "We are so blessed that we were able to spend the eight weeks of his hospitalization with him and his family. During those weeks, we experienced the best of Nursing. We were there to see the clinical skill that dealt with his very complex medical situation, the fast thinking of nurses who saved his life more than once, and that nursing excellence that took years to hone to the best of the profession. But frankly, as a patient family, we rather expected that Pat would have great clinical care. That was why he was in the hospital. What we did not expect was the way his nurses delivered that care - the kindness and compassion they gave Pat and all of us in his family every day. We were awed by the way the nurses touched him and spoke with him, even when he was on a ventilator and totally sedated. The way they informed and educated us eased our minds. They truly helped us through the darkest hours of our lives, with soft voices of hope and strong loving hugs that to this day, we still feel."

Just days after he died, the family began talking about what they would do to help fill the giant hole in their hearts that Pat’s passing had left. His wife came up with the acronym, DAISY, standing for diseases attacking the immune system. As they discussed what to do in Patrick’s memory, first and foremost, they wanted to say Thank You for the gifts nurses give their patients and families every day. That is when the family created The DAISY Award For Extraordinary Nurses.

For more information regarding Amanda's nomination, click here >>>