September 2019
Joseph
George
,
RN
ICU
George Washington University Hospital
Washington
,
DC
United States

 

 

 

We had an extremely critically ill patient transferred from another hospital (by the critical care transport team and our ECMO coordinator due to her instability). The patient had overdosed on medication not normally taken this way- so it really kept everyone brainstorming and researching how to best treat. She was very unstable on every vasopressor we could think to try. We needed to involve multiple services in order to treat place her on ECMO, manage her abdominal compartment and critical acute limb ischemia. Joe offered to come in early when he heard she was being transferred in. When he says he didn't sit for 16 hours - he really means it! But not only did he not stop moving - he did an extraordinary job. He was focused and attentive the entire time, administering a tremendous number of meds, providing the bedside care, picking up early on clinical changes, making treatment suggestions, and even trying to keep up with his charting. And did all of this while maintaining an incredibly positive attitude. Not many providers of any specialty would have been able to provide that level of care, and he definitely was an integral part of saving this patient's life.