Amanda Ramsay
September 2015
Amanda
Ramsay
,
RN
4A Cardiac
Mercy Hospital
Springfield
,
MO
United States

 

 

 

My father was a patient on unit 4A. He had been brought in by ambulance due to heart failure, fluid retention, an irregular heartbeat, etc. During his stay, Amanda observed that my dad coughed often while he was eating or drinking and she wondered if he might be aspirating his food. A test was ordered that showed he was indeed aspirating. Amanda's follow-through with her intuition and her observations enabled aggressive treatment to begin. This treatment also controlled the pneumonia he had developed as a result of the aspiration.

Additional tests also showed muscle weakness during swallowing; dad is now receiving speech therapy to improve this. It was Amanda's skilled observations that changed the entire course of treatment for my dad.

Thank You Amanda for putting my dad on a path that has led to treatment and therapy that will make a long-term difference for him and for our family!