Angela Retzios
"By empowering families in a positive manner, the result will be what is best for the child." -- Angela Retzios
Angela Retzios
Family Advisory Council member Angela Retzios.
"It is with great honor that I have joined the Family Advisory Council," said Angela Retzios, who became a member at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center during April 2006. "I am grateful to this hospital and want to contribute to this innovative council."
"As a member of the Family Advisory Council, I want to help the families and hospital continue the quest for family-centered care," Angela said.
"By empowering families in a positive manner, the result will be what is best for the child. With the realization that every situation is unique, we can identify and meet the needs of each family," Angela said. "By pushing the limit of family-centered care, Cincinnati Children's can continue to grow and provide the best care possible for all parties concerned."
"As a mother of a terminally ill child who passed away in 2002, we were overnight in the hospital more than not during his diagnoses and treatment of 1-½ years," Angela said.
"Our services were very broad (including 24-hour nursing while at home). Through my son's illness, I have the experience of many situations, departments, and outsourcing," Angela said. "I am compassionate, able to lead, and try to view the entire picture of each situation.
"I believe I will make a difference as a Family Advisory Council member by sharing my thoughts, learning through others and listening," Angela said. "I hope to contribute my existing knowledge through past experiences. I plan on contributing continual knowledge gained through others and my future experiences.
"Without realizing it, we were doing family-centered care from the beginning of our stay. Being a Greek family, family has always been the 'center' of our life, and we just brought this feeling straight into our hospital room / clinics," Angela explained.
"Our doctors would talk to each other from department to department even during a clinic visit. Once, my husband sat in on a weekly meeting of 'difficult cases' -- during the part regarding our son -- this was difficult to accomplish, but with the situation of Lazaros' illness and my husband's medical knowledge, they allowed it, and for us it was beneficial.
"From bringing in Lazaros' battery-operated Jeep" for him to ride "after hours" around the pod, to gathering many nurses into our room singing "Happy Birthday" to his grandfather (Lazaros' idea), we were family-centered," Angela said.
"The nurses would ask how I always had a smile and was happy. I told them it was because of them," Angela said. "Even though our family and friends were 100 percent supportive, we were often 'alone'. The staff at Children's live in this every day and are our lifelines between illness and reality."
"Donna in MRI was scheduling Lazaros (barely 4 years old) for a brain scan, with no time for sedation, so we called Dr. Amin to see if he thought Lazaros could do it. With the confidence that carried us through the many challenges we only began to face, Dr. Amin said absolutely yes … and they were amazed how still a very sick little boy could be for the loud and long scans."
A member of the Family Advisory Council Liberty Township Site Planning Committee, Angela said, "Currently I am enjoying keeping my eyes and ears wide open for exciting challenges yet to come. As a new member of the council, hearing the staff and family members' enthusiasm and the hospital's embracement of this council is wonderful."
