Owosso nurse Deven Morel wins DAISY Award for a chapel wedding

A patient at Memorial Healthcare in Owosso was in the hospital during the stretch of days they had planned to get married, facing what the hospital calls a difficult prognosis. A registered nurse on the 2-North/ICU floor, Deven Morel, decided the wedding should happen anyway — in the hospital chapel.

Memorial announced Wednesday that Morel is its fourth-quarter recipient of the DAISY Award, an international program that recognizes nurses for compassionate and skillful care. Nurses are nominated by patients and their families.

The nomination the hospital published describes what Morel organized after learning about the canceled wedding during leadership rounds. She coordinated with the patient's pastor to hold the ceremony in the chapel, worked with Food and Nutrition Services on a wedding cake, and arranged a private celebratory dinner "complete with table linens and bedside service." She made sure the couple had a private room for the evening and arranged for a small group of family members to attend.

"When the newly married couple returned to 2 North, the staff were waiting in the hallway to welcome them with applause, cheers, and heartfelt congratulations," the nomination reads. "For those few moments, the hospital wasn't just a place of treatment, it became a place where love, family, and hope were celebrated."

The nomination says the idea was entirely Morel's: "No one asked her to take this on." The hospital did not name the couple or the person who submitted the nomination, and the announcement does not say when the ceremony took place or how the patient is doing now.

The award itself is not just a plaque. Memorial says Morel received a certificate of recognition, a DAISY pin, cinnamon rolls, and a serpentine stone sculpture called "The Healer's Touch," carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe, meant to depict the relationship between nurses and patients.

Memorial recognizes staff regularly — The Current reported last month that the Owosso health system named home health nurse Darren Rumery its August employee of the month, and in August that it had honored medical assistant Heather Lokinski and public safety associate Darlene Dameron earlier in the year. The DAISY Award is a separate, nurse-specific program, and unlike employee of the month, the nominations come from outside the building.

What happens next: Memorial says DAISY Award nominations are accepted year-round, online through the hospital's DAISY Award Nomination page or in person at the main campus at 826 W. King St. in Owosso. The hospital has not yet posted its October employee of the month, which The Current is still watching for.