My husband was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis approximately 4 years ago. Recently he came to the IU Frankfort Hospital for five consecutive days of Infusion Therapy. While he received kind and compassionate care from all the staff in the Ambulatory Surgery Department, one Nurse really stood out going well above and beyond for my husband.
Crystle Reed was the nurse that cared for him most of the 5 days he was there. During her routine assessment of vitals throughout his infusion, she noticed an abnormally low pulse rate. She decided to place him on a cardiac monitor to more closely monitor what was happening. She noticed occasionally he was having an irregular rhythm called bigeminy. She questioned how he was feeling, and he admitted "a little weird". She continued to talk to him and investigate her findings.
He has been having episodes of near passing out several times since this last harvest with no explainable cause. She noted that after about 20 minutes he was back in a normal rhythm, not repeating the irregularity for another 20-30 minutes. She called the hospitalist and arranged to get an ECG but instead of just taking the current rhythm she waited to see the irregularity repeat itself and was able to capture it on paper. He had recently had 2 other ECG's that showed a normal rhythm with occasional PVC's (considered a fairly common and normal rhythm). She discussed her findings with the hospitalist there at the hospital. While that would have been considered a great job and a great find, she didn't stop there; she contacted a cardiologist, arranged for the first available appointment for him to be seen, sent the ECG showing the captured rhythm, then knowing it was an occasional thing that was occurring, she arranged for him to wear a halter monitor for 2 days increasing the possibility of catching the episodes happening.
We were so happy to finally have possibly found the cause of these scary and dangerous episodes that he had been having. Crystle didn't stop there; she knew we were hoping to go to Florida soon and my husband would need to have more infusions for his myasthenia, so she looked into where we could go to receive the infusions and set everything up with the next infusion center. This is what we think the DAISY Award is all about; nurses that go above and beyond for their patients giving us a little extra help and peace of mind. She caught something that had eluded several professionals before her. She is truly a blessing in our eyes and an outstanding Nurse.