July 2009
Bryan
Lester
,
RN
ED
Baptist Memorial Hospital - Memphis
Memphis
,
TN
United States
I received a call from Brian Lester on Sunday night. He was alerting me of a situation and to retrieve answers to his documentation questions. Readerls Digest version: Women's Hospital received a patient yesterday. She was a 22 yr old, who was estimated at 34 weeks. This patient had no prenatal care and had a history of drug abuse. Her brother died of the same medical condition when he was 16. It was determined that she had a dissecting thoracic aneurysm and she could not be managed at the Women's Hospital. They contacted Brian in the Memphis ED, and being a person of action, he went to Women's as an extension of the ED, and was in constant communication with the Memphis ERP. Brian handled the situation as an MRT. They were able to stabilize the patient and deliver the baby. The delivery team accompanied Brian and the pt on the ambulance ride to Memphis, where she underwent emergency surgery. Her prognosis was poor and I do not know her current status, nor the status of her baby girl at Women's. This was an extremely urgent situation and Brian handled it as an MRT response to Women's. The staff there greatly appreciated his involvement and assistance. Even though the outcomes may be less than optimal, Brian went above and beyond and handled the case appropriately. He and the entire team from both facilities were professional in meeting the needs of both of our patients. This case could be used for education of our mutual staffs as an example of how things should be handled, given an extremely emergent situation between the two services. Brian and the staff at Women's need to be commended for their handling of this most difficult event.