Amanda Van Weeldon
We had the pleasure of meeting Amanda during our daughter's cochlear implant surgery. Amanda was waiting beside her bed and greeted us with a calming smile and quickly let us know that she was doing very well. When she knew that we felt comfortable that our daughter handled surgery well, she then let us know that she discovered on her heart monitor that her QT interval looked prolonged and that she brought it to the attention of Anesthesiology and they were going to come talk to us. The Anesthesiologist spoke with us in said that he was not worried and told us just to mention it to our pediatrician the next time we saw him. Amanda then leaned over after he left and said, “If it were my child…” She also said that she didn’t want to override anyone, but wanted to explain that we as parents could request that a cardiologist take a peek at our daughter since we were staying the night due to surgery anyway. We agreed with Amanda. In the days following, it was confirmed that our daughter did have prolonged QT interval which was later diagnosed as Jervell Lange-Nielsen syndrome. The mortality rate of individuals with JLNS, if not diagnosed, is frightening. Amanda most likely saved our daughter's life…literally. The LQTS is also genetic and her efforts will also likely save the life of other family members as well. Since learning the diagnosis, she has been under the fabulous care of Dr. Atkins at UIHC. The questions and comments are always the same, “The patient's life was saved by a very smart post op nurse.”; “Who was this nurse?”; “That is one ‘on top of it’ nurse”; “It is amazing that the patient spent 3 weeks in the NICU, had had surgery before, and this was never caught…thank God for that Post Op Nurse.” That nurse now has a name…Amanda! Amanda is our angel and we are forever grateful. Not only for her wisdom in catching the prolonged QT, but for really caring and for taking 5 minutes to have a life changing conversation with our family. UIHC is very lucky to have Amanda and so are we.
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