October 2013
Joy
Grefenstette
,
RN
CCU
Providence Alaska Medical Center
Anchorage
,
AK
United States

 

 

 

I was medivac'ed from Fairbanks and had interventional surgery resulting in 5 stents. Two days later when I was trying to walk, I complained of pain in the right leg. Also felt very cold and numb in the foot. Joy was the charge nurse. Joy kept trying every chance she got to feel for a pulse but to no avail.

By the afternoon, she recalled Dr. M who very appreciatively took control after praising Joy very highly. By early the next morning they had me on blood thinners and ready for Dr W who was able to intervene, find the clot, dislodge it, and stent it thus saving my life once again.

It is unsolicited bravery like this that makes the nursing profession outstanding and worthwhile. Joy is outstanding and fully deserving of the name NURSE. Since my own mother died of an undiagnosed embolism at 62, this has awesome reverberations to me and my family.