February 2024
Kelsey
Fair
,
RN, PHN, BSN
4A CVICU
M Health
Minneapolis
,
MN
United States
Kelsey saved my husband's life with her advocacy, strength, and courage. She is the definition of a force of a nurse, and anyone would be in the best care with her as their nurse.
My husband has had a rough and scary journey over the last few months. After passing out into a busy intersection while running, it led to us finding out he had a congenital defect that needed open heart surgery. In January, he went in for his open heart surgery. The surgery itself went okay, and post op, Kelsey was our nurse. She was absolutely amazing. His postoperative period was so unstable, and she picked up on it immediately that he was in trouble. I’m a nurse, and I know what it is like to have a gut feeling that something is off about your patient, and Kelsey felt that and acted on it. She advocated for my husband, was persistent in what she knew he needed, and was not afraid to be direct with his team in order to get him what he needed. My husband ended up having to emergently go back to the OR, as he was bleeding and the surgeon needed to go back in to assess. He received blood products, clotting factors, medications to help his blood pressure, and more. He was very ill and it was terrifying. As he was getting ready to go back to the OR, and multiple healthcare providers were in his room, I was sobbing and laying my head on the bed with him. I didn’t know this, but Kelsey told me later that she was hugging me as I melted into his bed. I will never forget that day, and I will never forget that people like Kelsey got me through it, along with my family and friends. Kelsey is personable, experienced, intelligent, and kind. Kelsey saved my husband's life with her advocacy, strength, and courage. She is the definition of a force of a nurse, and anyone would be in the best care with her as their nurse. My husband and myself come from a background of cardiac ICU nursing, and both have been in the field for many years. We entered into this experience humbled, terrified, and apprehensive because we know the ins and outs of healthcare, of the ICU, and of heart patients. We know what can go wrong, and what can go right. It’s humbling to be on the patient side, and even the years of experience won’t prepare two nurses for what we went through. I look at the care Kelsey provided for my husband, and I will strive to model my care after her to my patients. The most terrifying day of my life, also turned into a day where I will remember Kelsey and her wonderful nursing care.