August 2016
Katie
Fujiwara
,
RN
Critical Care Unit
UW Medicine - Valley Medical Center
Renton
,
WA
United States

 

 

 

My brother is a patient on the Critical Care Unit. He is only 23 and was admitted for pneumonia sepsis. He came to the unit intubated and in critical condition. This was a major shock for our family and I took off work that night to be with family. Around 2 AM, he went into cardiac arrest and we watched them perform CPR for 13 minutes until they got a pulse. I work as an emergency room nurse and have been the primary nurse for many coding patients and it is one of the most difficult aspects of the job especially when you have grieving family at bedside.
Katie was very professional and in one of the most stressful, terrible moments in my life, I was able to find comfort in watching her be an excellent primary nurse. She was calm, collected and everything I hope I am as a nurse. She knew just how to talk to my family after the code and I knew my brother was in excellent hands. Sometimes when the worse things in life happen it makes all the difference to be able to put your trust in somebody else's hands; that little bit of comfort can go so far. I didn't feel completely alone.
***
This nurse was awesome! Katie was attentive, compassionate, super professional and always had a positive vibe. We were here at the hospital because my boyfriend was critically sick. He started off with pneumonia or so we thought. I never dealt with something so traumatizing. He coded and I wish no one would have to see anything like that, but Katie made it that much easier. She may be little, but she was sure as hell a beast (in a good way). She was always on top of everything and informed us without having to ask. Katie was the Best!