I was especially glad to have a chance to tell you personally about our experience last week when D was admitted to H&V Tower. He arrived at the ED in atrial fib and was well taken care of there but almost immediately upon being admitted to his room he became unresponsive with rapid plunge in BP. We had just met his RN, Scott Van Norwick, who calmly but quickly determined that D had converted to normal sinus rhythm and Diltiazem drip needed to be stopped immediately. At the same time, he was calling for back-up which arrived immediately.
As I was watching all this from the corner of the room, Scott's evaluation and orders were never questioned by other nurses and so I had the same confidence in him that they did. D responded pretty quickly, and Scott was doing a great job explaining to him what happened. When D mentioned that he was a physician, Scott made a wonderful amusing comment about doctors as patients which made us all laugh. Scott was D's night nurse for 3 consecutive nights and my husband still tells everyone how important his quick decision to stop that IV drip was.
On a more personal note, as I was getting ready to leave about 2 AM, Scott asked where I was parked, and I said ED. He insisted on calling Security to meet me in Lobby for escort and said if they could not do it, he would get someone to cover D while he took a few minutes to do so himself. Please know how grateful we are for Scott's professional expertise as well as the personal interest he took in D's case as they tried to figure out what problem was. As it turns out, a GI bleed in stomach. As platelets and hemoglobin kept dropping and he became weaker, it was determined D needed 2 units of blood before he could even begin prep for colonoscopy/gastroscopy next day.
D practiced at Rex for 30 years and was always very complimentary of the nurses in OR, ED, and ortho floor. He has now for the first-time seen nursing care from the "other side." We are both so appreciative of his nurses' skills and the caring that came with it.