CHICAGO _ Engaged to her childhood sweetheart, in the first year of her pharmacy residency at Mercy Hospital & Medical Center, Dayna Less, 25, had the world in front of her, her father said Tuesday morning.
At work Monday afternoon, she walked off an elevator and into the path of a bullet. She was among four people fatally shot during an attack at the South Side hospital, in which sources and witnesses said the gunman went after his former fiancee, an emergency room doctor who also was killed.
"That woman got off an elevator and was shot, why?" Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said of Less.
"She was marrying her childhood sweetheart and now she is not going to be able to do that," her father, Brian Less, said in a telephone interview.
She met her fiance at church camp, when she was 9 years old. They started dating when she was 15. They were to be married in June at the Serbian Orthodox church in Lansing, Ill., with a reception at Halls of St George in Schererville, Ind. The family expected nearly 500 people to attend, Less said.
"He is as good as they come," Less said. "He was her only true boyfriend. He made her laugh, he made her giddy, it was fun to watch. And he is devastated."
An only child, Dayna was a good combination of both parents, her father said.
"Analytical, which she got from me, and artistic, which she got from her mother," Brian Less said.
She loved to travel, she loved her church. She was fun and lively, her father said.
"She had a wonderful life," Less said. "She was the strongest person I know. She was a fighter."
As a teenager, Dayna started getting terrible, migrainelike headaches that turned out to be nerves that had embedded themselves in her skull, Less said. The family had to travel to Georgetown University to get the surgery she needed. Watching his daughter go through that ordeal, seeing her in so much pain, was horrible, but Less admired her strength, he said.
"I don't want her to be remembered as a victim, I absolutely do not," Less said. "This was a girl who fought through adversity, who fought through major health challenges when she was 15 years old ... that because she was given a second chance free, she decided to give back freely."
Her blog, mydaughtersheadache.com, "has helped hundreds of kids find help and hope," Less said.
Her career path was a product of her experience, her father said. She decided to attend Purdue University and become a pharmacist, graduating in May in a beautiful ceremony, Less said. She was so happy, after such a long six years of hard work, to finally be robed a doctor of pharmacy, he said.
She was not afraid of anything _ not work, or tough subjects, or talking in front of people, Less said. She loved working at Mercy, he said.
When she spent eight weeks on a pharmacy rotation in Eldoret, Kenya, her blog entries noted how different the work environment was from what she was used to, in ways she wanted to improve the places she worked when she returned.
"I have never met so many people that seemed genuinely happy at work," Dayna wrote. " ... The focus on collaboration and teamwork is something I hope to bring back home with me when I start working."
She loved the food she ate, the people she met, and the wisdom they imparted, according to her blog. Getting to know patients and their families was rewarding, she wrote. But as time wore on, the days became draining.
"Some days it feels like I've been running around all day and nothing gets done," she wrote.
So on their walks home from the hospital, she and others in her program started talking about "big wins" _ things they did that made a difference, or a positive experiences, she wrote.
"Watching patients die from things that would 100 percent be treatable in the US is extremely disheartening," Dayna wrote. "It's been very important for me to focus on the positive things we are doing here because it can be difficult to see how we are making a difference. But, it's worth it when you fight for something and it actually happens! Even if it's as small as making sure a patient gets their medication, we are doing something that matters."
Many of Dayna's "big wins" involved helping others understand. She considered her "wins" to include teaching the family of a patient with HIV how the virus is spread; getting the accurate weight of a patient and correcting the dose of her medications, which stopped negative effects it was having on her liver; making sure a patient got insulin; and discharging a 15-year-old patient who had been hospitalized for more than a month.
"She was a wonderful person the world will miss terribly," Less said.
" ... I always believed in my daughter and I still believe in my daughter."
