There was a patient on Stepdown we had had for a while who had been in and out of our hospital and Duane Watters (prison system hospital) multiple times. This patient was a gentleman in his early 50's who had been diagnosed with inoperable cancer of the epiglottis and had a very large tumor which would eventually occlude his airway. Code status had been discussed at length with the patient and his wife, but neither one seemed to understand the gravity of the situation or what it actually meant to be a Do Not Resuscitate, and the patient continued to be a full code.

On the day that Heather was this patient's nurse, the wife was called for a visit (and for those of you not familiar with the corrections system, a family visit is very hard to obtain!). As Heather was discussing the patient's situation with his wife, it became clear to Heather that his wife had been under the mistaken impression that if she agreed to make the patient a DNR, that would mean that his trach would be taken out and we would do nothing for him. Heather discussed at length what DNR actually means and that we would do everything to make him comfortable and relieve his suffering. In short, Heather was an amazing comfort to the patient's wife and she decided to make him a DNR/Comfort Care.

Heather proceeded to have a discussion with the patient about how he felt about his life and past mistakes that had led to him being incarcerated. She asked him if he wanted to talk about his relationship with God, and he stated that he did, but felt that he didn't feel God would want anything to do with him after all he had done in his life. Heather spoke with the patient at length about his spiritual life.

Heather did an amazing job with this patient's wife in relieving her distress over his situation and an even more amazing job in relieving the patient's distress over his life's mistakes and his uncertainty over his eternal future.

Heather is an outstanding nurse and an asset to our organization!