Akelia Ferrell
December 2024
Akelia
Ferrell
,
RN
5N Remote Telemetry Unit
Ascension Saint Alexius in Hoffman Estates
Hoffman Estates
,
IL
United States
Akelia did an amazing job advocating for her patient. She was able to get him the increased care he should have had from the outset.
In the days of chivalry, when arguments might be settled with trials by combat, a champion could be named if the other party was unable to fight on their own behalf. That's what RNs do, and they regard illness and disease as opponents - adversaries that are relentless and without pity. And while such a notion might sound hyperbolic or overly romanticized, we promise it will seem less so once we describe the efforts of DAISY Honoree Akelia Ferrell.
Akelia works in our 5N Remote Telemetry Unit, and a while back, an eighteen-year-old male was transferred from the emergency department. Many of our patients might be described as unable to fight their own battles, but with Cerebral Palsy and requiring total care assistance, barely weighed 80 pounds, and had a history of previous cardiac arrest and hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy - meaning he's suffered a type of brain dysfunction due to insufficient flow of blood and oxygen.
Upon arrival at 5N, he was secreting and vomiting into the oxygen mask that he needed to breathe, and required frequent suctioning. Akelia immediately saw that he required a higher level of care than her unit could provide and voiced her concern to the ED. The physician there stood by the initial decision. She repeated her concerns to the patient's primary care physician and pulmonologist - and did so again when the patient's respiration and heart rate rose to alarming levels, and his condition worsened. When his heart raced to 150 bpm, and his breaths per minute spiked in the 30s-40s, a Rapid Response Team responded and got him to the ICU stat, where he was intubated.
The RRT RN who answered the call nominated Akelia for this DAISY Award. He wrote, "Akelia did an amazing job advocating for her patient. She was able to get him the increased care he should have had from the outset. If she weren't as attentive, the patient might well have coded. Her assessment of skills prevented such an adverse outcome."
The Thesaurus suggests some other words for "advocate" - fighter, campaigner, supporter, flag-bearer, "champion". To which we add, Akelia.
Akelia works in our 5N Remote Telemetry Unit, and a while back, an eighteen-year-old male was transferred from the emergency department. Many of our patients might be described as unable to fight their own battles, but with Cerebral Palsy and requiring total care assistance, barely weighed 80 pounds, and had a history of previous cardiac arrest and hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy - meaning he's suffered a type of brain dysfunction due to insufficient flow of blood and oxygen.
Upon arrival at 5N, he was secreting and vomiting into the oxygen mask that he needed to breathe, and required frequent suctioning. Akelia immediately saw that he required a higher level of care than her unit could provide and voiced her concern to the ED. The physician there stood by the initial decision. She repeated her concerns to the patient's primary care physician and pulmonologist - and did so again when the patient's respiration and heart rate rose to alarming levels, and his condition worsened. When his heart raced to 150 bpm, and his breaths per minute spiked in the 30s-40s, a Rapid Response Team responded and got him to the ICU stat, where he was intubated.
The RRT RN who answered the call nominated Akelia for this DAISY Award. He wrote, "Akelia did an amazing job advocating for her patient. She was able to get him the increased care he should have had from the outset. If she weren't as attentive, the patient might well have coded. Her assessment of skills prevented such an adverse outcome."
The Thesaurus suggests some other words for "advocate" - fighter, campaigner, supporter, flag-bearer, "champion". To which we add, Akelia.