Joni was caring for a patient scheduled to undergo an organ donation. Her patient was to be a donor after cardiac death, which is a donor who has sustained an unrecoverable brain injury and is close to expiring but does not meet formal brain death criteria. In donation after cardiac death, the patient's family has decided to withdraw care. After care has been withdrawn and the patient's heart stops beating, then there is a 5-minute pause before the organ recovery process is initiated. During the time from when the patient is in the OR and the organ recovery begins, the patient's family is allowed to be in the OR with the patient.
When Joni was caring for her patient, there was a request for 12 family members to remain at the patient's bedside before the organ recovery process began. There are some real difficulties in accommodating a group so large, especially in the restricted area of the OR. Given the patient's history and situation surrounding his death, Joni decided it was in the patient's best interest to accommodate the family's requests, even though it was out of the norm.
Joni had one operating room set up for the procedure and then set the family of the patient up in another operating room. Joni brought in chairs and made the family comfortable for when it was time for them to come in. She also ensured that the requested music was played. She said when the patient expired that there was overall a sense of peace. Joni contributed to the patient dying with dignity and making sure that all the family's requests were honored during a very important time.
As OR nurses, this is not typically something that we are involved with, but Joni went above and beyond. Joni deserves to be commended for her care of the family.