Rachel Stark

Photo (l-r) Michele Samaniego (nominator) and Rachel Stark.

I am a nurse who works in SICU at night. In the past two weeks, we have received many young traumas as we usually do once the weather becomes nice. Recently, we received a young woman who was in a bad car accident which left her paralyzed from the belly button down. The patient has full cognition and is aware of her new diagnosis. In addition to this tragic news, her parents take care of her younger brother who has Hunter's disease. This is a disease that involves complete care from a care taker and repetitive admissions throughout the year into the PICU in Goryeb's Children Hospital. The parents now have two children that require complete care. The devastation of this is something that one can only imagine.

Since the duration of her admission, she has been battling recurrent pneumonias. Rachel, who has taken care of her for six nights in a row, quickly noticed that she dropped her oxygen saturation and had decreased breath sounds on her left lower lobe of her lung. She called the surgical resident asking for an order for a STAT chest x-ray. Once an x-ray was done, it had been confirmed that the left lower lobe had a consolidation and it was due to mucus plugging. Rachel worked diligently with the respiratory therapist turning and repositioning her every 2 hours and doing chest physical therapy to the effected side. The parents, who remained in the room taking shifts between their hospitalized daughter and ill son, noticed the exemplary job done by Rachel and highly praised her for dedication to their daughter. By the second day, the patient had improved greatly. Her oxygen reading from her blood gas went from 57 (normally 60-100) to 237 within 48 hours. The patient herself knew how dedicated and hard Rachel was working with her. When I would come in to assist with repositioning the patient, Rachel would explain everything she was doing before she would do it and was able to communicate with the patient by reading her lips. She answered every question that the family members had in regards to their loved ones care. Rachel collaborated the plan of care with respiratory therapists, surgical residents and nursing peers. Rachel exemplifies the true definition of compassionate care.