Sunday, December 30, 2018
Staff report
CANFIELD
Three-year-old Sabashtyan Haefke practically flew into the arms of Bobi Jo Piper, his daily caregiver for nearly two years until three months ago.
“I was afraid he wouldn’t recognize me,” said Piper, giving Sabashtyan, who was born 11 weeks premature, a big hug.
It was a heart-warming reunion.
“Bobi Jo was a godsend,” agreed Sabashtyan’s parents, of Austintown, during an interview at Maxim Healthcare Services in Poland, where Piper works and who was recently named the firm’s Regional Caregiver of the Year. She was judged on her work with Sabashtyan.
Piper, who was previously named Maxim’s Ohio Caregiver of the Year, will travel to Orlando, Fla., next month, where she and three other regional honorees will vie for Maxim’s National Caregiver of the Year award.
Now in its seventh year, the Caregiver of the Year Award program celebrates nurses and home health care aides for the key roles they play in delivering quality, patient-centered care to some of the nation’s most medically fragile and chronically ill patients, said Ryan Capretta, operations manager at Maxim’s Poland office.
Videos of Piper, of Canfield, and the other candidates at work, will be shown at the presentation ceremony.
“I’m still shocked at being named Regional Caregiver of the Year. I’m humbled and honored to be listed among the other nurses across the country,” said Piper, 35.
Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.