My 18-year old brother was in a terrible car accident that left him intubated and with brain swelling/bleeding and a severe traumatic brain injury, arriving into the ER with a GCS of a 3. Jessica, his ER nurse that day, was the one who helped track down and get a hold of our mom. She was one of the ones who, despite the chaos of getting him stable, were also just as determined to track down his family.
My mom then notified the rest of us and we rushed to the hospital, we all live about an hour away so by the time we got to the hospital he was in the ICU. With everything going on no one was able to tell us about the accident, the EMS report, A's condition at the scene of the accident or in the ER. My mom and I went down to the ED to search for that piece of paper, in hindsight it's pretty silly we ever thought we could find it down there, we found something better. Thank goodness Jessica was working again the next day. Jessica came out to the waiting room, took my mom and me to the side and sat down and talked with us. Finally, we were able to get a full picture of what happened. As completely overwhelming as all this news was we were beyond relieved and so incredibly grateful that Jessica sat down and talked with us. I'll never forget that conversation, she was so straight forward yet gentle and honest about what happened to my brother and how he looked when he came into the trauma bay. She didn't have to sit down with us that day, she was working, she didn't have to answer our thousand questions, but she did and we can't thank her enough for her time and honesty.
A few days later my mom and I returned to the ER, but she wasn't working that day so we left her a note, we wanted to update her on my brother's progress. Even though we only met her once, you could just tell she really truly cares about her patients, honestly was interested in my brother's recovery and that she's one hell of an ER nurse. And I couldn't have picked a better nurse to take care of him at his most venerable time in the ER, it kills us not being there while he was in the ER, but knowing Jessica was taking care of him gives us some relief.
At one point during his stay, mom ran into Jessica in the hall; Jessica remembered my mom and asked how my brother was doing. After his transfer to a rehab hospital, we still were able to keep in touch with Jessica sending her pictures or video of my brother's accomplishments, they started out small like sitting up by himself, taking a step on his own, walking with and then without support, kicking a soccer ball, then about 2 1/2 months after his accident he started talking. I asked her to please share these videos with his trauma team; we wanted to encourage them to never give up on a GCS of a 3.
Jessica went above and beyond by tracking down the names and number of the EMS workers who took care of A, so one day we can go visit them to thank them in person.
When we left to go to the rehab hospital, we told the nurses and doctors we would be back so my brother could walk in and thank them all in person, in the back of our minds not knowing if that could ever be a possibility...but it was!
Five months after the accident, he was finally ready and headed home. We were able to visit with the entire trauma team thanks to Jessica's help. It was just the best feeling being able to come back and visit with his team, getting to talk with Jessica and letting her see in person how good he looks, and how drastically he's changed since the last time she saw him almost six months prior. Letting my brother thank her in person for her hard work that day. That because of her (and his trauma team) he's able to be here today. She is someone we will forever be grateful for, and who we still keep in contact with and as a fellow nurse she's someone who I strive to be like.