Brooke Trombley, BSN, RN

Brooke went above and beyond her duties on Christmas Eve (Dayshift) when she caught tamponade on her patient’s echo result. Brooke had seven patients this day and had had a rapid on another patient earlier in the day. When the echo came back showing the tamponade she immediately notified the resident who was “polite” but did not seem as alarmed as he should have been. She pressured the resident to look into it and it was later found that the patient was suffering from aortic dissection. She immediately called the SWAT RN to come to start Esmolol to get the patient's pressure down. He was transferred to CVICU and waited for two hours before he was transferred to U of M Medical CTR in Ann Arbor for treatment. In my opinion, Brooke saved this young man's life even though she had seven patients and a very heavy team that day. The pressures of high acuity and 1 to 7 ratio that day I believe many nurses, including myself, may have missed this vital piece of info that saved this man’s life.