Memorial Announces Cloee Semien January 2025 DAISY Award Winner

​Congratulations to Cloee Semien, BSN, RN a member of the team at the Family Birth Center at Lake Charles Memorial Hopsital for Women. Cloee was nominated for her compassionate and supportive care to a new mother during a difficult labor.

From the nominator:

I was 38 weeks and 4 days pregnant, heading to my OB appointment. Due to my high blood pressure, they sent me to labor and delivery to get induced. Since it was my first baby, I was terrified. When my shift change came at 7 p.m., my new nurse, Cloee, introduced herself. She asked if I needed anything and how I was feeling. She was so sweet.

Later, my contractions started getting closer and more painful. I asked her for an epidural as the pain intensified, and I was crying from how bad the contractions were. She was right there, helping me with my breathing. When they brought in the epidural, I couldn’t handle the pain anymore. I started crying, saying, “I can’t do this anymore,” and she kept reassuring me, saying, “Yes, you can! Just keep breathing.”

When it was time for the epidural, I was having a contraction, and Cloee was holding me, wiping away my tears, and moving my hair out of my face. She kept encouraging me, saying I could do it. When they were cleaning my back for the epidural, another contraction hit, and I was in so much pain. She told me to lean on her, bite her jacket, or squeeze her—anything to help me through it. “I’m just here to help you,” she said. So, I decided to bite her jacket and squeeze her.

Later, during labor, I had to push for almost two hours. Cloee was there the whole time, being one of my biggest sources of support, telling me how well I was doing and offering advice on how to push. When I finally held my baby in my arms, she told me how beautiful my baby was and how well I had done. She was the best nurse I’ve ever had, and I honestly don’t think I could’ve made it through labor without her there. Even my mom, aunt, and boyfriend said they loved her and could tell she was so passionate about what she does.

I remember asking her if she ever gets tired from working the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, and she said no because she just sleeps during the day and wakes up to go back to work. After I got my epidural, I told her I wanted her to have the DAISY Award because I felt so relieved from the pain. I promised myself I’d write about her. She never left my side when I needed her!

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 Cloee's nomination, click here >>>