Tonight I write to you with great pride about one of our very outstanding nurses on the night shift. I believe it is essential that we recognize the nurses that do excellent work, especially on nights where we do not have the extra support available on days. I know all of you do that and I wanted to contribute a nurse's name to you that may not be recognized because we are on nights and sometimes amazing things are not noticed.

During my shift, I was given information about a patient that was high risk on the floor. I wondered which nurse was caring for this patient and was glad that Michelle Jouz-Nied, RN on her case.

Michelle was concerned about letting the patient leave the floor for a CT scan. Michelle was observant, caring and reading her patient carefully. I took off for the patient's room knowing I would meet Michelle in the room.

The patient was seriously compromised and things moved with lightning speed. When the patient was finally stable, the ENT resident I called in as well as our own hospitalist Dr. M told me that if we had waited 2-3 more minutes we would have completely lost this patient's airway to significant edema. The CT showed the throat swelling completely encasing the intubation tubing.

Michelle acted promptly, not letting this patient leave the floor before being assessed. Her knowledge, acute sense about her patient and actions saved our patient's life. I did talk to Michelle and told her that her quick actions and great decisions saved this patient's life.

Michelle is a valuable, hard-working nurse on nights that shows her skills by example. Patients at HFWBH are truly Blessed to have Michelle "running the House" on Garden at night.