This letter was sent from Dr Rodenberger to Karen Oxler, Chief Nursing Officer, complementing extraordinary nursing care:


I want to thank your nursing staff for outstanding, life-saving work this weekend. A patient was admitted with MSSA bacteremia and sepsis. She had some prolonged bleeding after dialysis Saturday but the bleeding stopped with pressure. She returned to 5 West. That night, in the wee hours, she had an acute hemorrhage from her fistula. There was a lot of blood! Aleecia Borsella did an incredible job of doing the right thing emergently, calmly and efficiently. Aleecia and the 5 West team took care of the urgent problem (held the bleeding site), called me after triage care and accurately and succinctly described the problem, and followed through till she was able to get to the OR for a fix.

Fistulas can be intimidating to even experienced nephrologists and dialysis nurses. An acutely bleeding fistula in an acutely hypotensive patient on a CHF floor much more so. Dialysis patients can rapidly die from an access hemorrhage.

I understand the primary caregiver, Aleecia, was a very young and very new nurse; that she handled it so well is commendable. Please thank her, for me and for Ms. B. We are fortunate to have such caring and competent staff here.

Sincerely,

Dr. Chad Rodenberger