In the ICU we are composed of a team of exceptional nurses. We, however, have one nurse who has consistently stood out from the day he started in our unit, Kevin Trussoni. There are so many qualities that Kevin has that makes him a DAISY Nurse. His kindness, willingness to help, stewardship, and humor are just a couple that comes to mind. The main reason I am writing this is due to his keen ability to look at the whole picture of one patient in particular. We received a patient on Bi-Pap from an outlying facility, his diagnosis was Pneumonia. He came into the hospital on Bi-pap and another nurse in our unit admitted him. The patient was stable on the Bi-pap but he didn't seem like he was making improvements. The doctor ordered an EKG on him; Kevin happened to be there and took a look. Kevin said, "I think this guy is having a heart attack." The physician didn't have any concerns regarding the EKG and it didn't necessarily look like a home run EKG. Fast forward 2 hours Kevin is now taking care of this patient, a Troponin recheck is drawn and his levels had increased substantially. An Echocardiogram had been done and resulted and his heart was not functioning well. Kevin was right; this patient was actually having a STEMI. Kevin swiftly went into "go mode". He made sure that the patient was safe and was sent to the Cardiac Cath Lab in a timely matter. The patient was down there for a while and we received a phone call from them stating that they needed help with medications, and asked us to send a nurse. There was no hesitation to Kevin; he knew what needed to be done for his patient. Kevin then spent the next 2 hours down there by this patient's side. Kevin started several vasoactive medications, titrated appropriately, and made sure the patient was adequately sedated during the procedure. The patient had an Intra-Abdominal Balloon Pump placed to take the workload off of the heart and they were then able to place a stent. These are a lot of big words but what this all amounts to is that this patient was very sick and he honestly owes his positive outcome to Kevin.
What I find to be the most remarkable part of this story is that this is just a snapshot of who Kevin is. Kevin is so special; he cares deeply for all the patients in the ICU and would do absolutely anything for each and every one of them. Kevin is steadily the first person to your aid when you have a difficult patient or even when you are just busy. He is kind and helpful to all disciplines that we encounter and treats them as if they are his immediate team members. In Kevin's eyes, the needs of the patient truly come first, and he frequently reminds all of his coworkers that.