Rosie and her mother, Dani Lawson, came looking for a test and some understanding.
When Dani Lawson pulled into line at the Layton COVID-19 testing center, she was nervous and desperate. She knew her 14-month-old daughter Rosie needed to get a COVID-19 test but the last time someone tried to do a nasal swab test on her it wasn’t a good experience. Her daughter, who was already facing multiple serious medical challenges, had gone into shock and stopped breathing.
And yet her daughter, who also has a brain tumor, is required to get a COVID-19 test before each of the many procedures that are ahead for her. Intermountain’s policy is that children under five years old can’t do a saliva test. But Rosie’s nose didn’t develop properly and she’ll eventually have to have surgery to reconstruct it, Dani says.
“There’s no way they could have gotten a swab down there without it being super traumatic for her,” she says.
Dani spotted a woman setting up cones in the parking lot and called her over to talk. She picked the right person. The woman was Sandra Law, RN-coordinator, who just happened to be covering for the site’s regular coordinator that day.
“I just told her our story and explained the situation and she instantly went into action and said, ‘We’ll find another way to do this. We will work with you,’” Dani says. “She listened.”
Sandra Law, RN-coordinator, told Dani Lawson she'd find a way to help Rosie and she did.
Sandra asked Dani to pull over to the side of the parking lot and wait while she figured out what they could do to help Rosie.
“I went inside and I brainstormed with a group in there, which included Emilie Brooks, RN, and Rachel Babinsky, RN, both nurses who were working at the testing site,” Sandra says.
The team came up with the idea of using a little suction device called a pipette that could extract a small amount of saliva for the test. Sandra phoned the testing lab and they agreed, in this unique case, they could accept a saliva sample from Rosie.
Dani was quite excited to hear the news, knowing a saliva sample would be easy to obtain because her daughter was cutting teeth, Sandra says.
“She listened to my concerns,” Dani says. “As a mom, for me it was such a relief. It was such a big deal. She listened in a situation where I felt like there was going to be only one answer and there would be no other options. And she was there saying, ‘Of course, we will figure out another way and we will get it done.’ She was just an answer to a mom’s prayers.”
When Dani Lawson pulled into the Layton testing site, she spotted Sandra Law, RN-coordinator, setting up cones and called her over to talk to her.
There were more tests that followed and the nurses at the site put together a container that included the supplies the little girl would need for her tests. They called it “Rosie’s box,” Sandra says.
“Seriously, Sandra went above and beyond anything she had to do that day,” Dani says. “She could have easily said this is the only way we can do it. It’s hard living in a world where there’s so much uncertainty and on top of that to have a daughter with special needs; it’s so scary. It was just a relief knowing I had someone in my corner in this situation.