Virginia Camero
Virginia was nominated by the Chief Resident: "I wanted to take this opportunity to commend one of our PACU nurses, Virginia Camero. On Sunday, March 1st, I was the first call resident that helped take care of an infant that had 40% burns over her body. We provided general anesthesia to the patient, the surgery was without complications, and we extubated the child without difficulty. When the patient was initially brought to the PACU, she was in no apparent distress and was hemodynamically appropriate and stable. However, when it was time for the infant to go to the regular pediatric floor, Virginia called me because she was concerned that the patient wasn't breathing well and might need to be upgraded to the PICU. When I arrived to examine the patient, her vital signs and oxygen saturation were all still normal. Physical exam, however, revealed that the infant had nasal flaring and costal retractions with every breath. I agreed with Virginia that the patient needed ICU care, and called the surgery team to let them know what Virginia discovered. The surgical team agreed and the patient was admitted to the PICU. Of note, the infant eventually had to be intubated that evening after admission to the PICU. And while we have no way of knowing if the pediatric ward would have noticed the patient needed to be intubated, we can feel confident that because of Virginia's attentiveness the patient was transferred to the appropriate level of health care. (The infant was discharged within 10 days without any complications, I am happy to say.) ...Thanks to Virginia's attentiveness to her patients, this infant was in the optimum place when a critical piece of her care needed to be attended to. For that, I am glad to be part of this excellent anesthesia/PACU team, and to be working with outstanding nurses like Virginia. Sincerely, Cannon Clifton, MD, PE Chief Resident"
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