Kristi exemplifies what an extraordinary nurse can mean to not only their patients but their loved ones also. Her continued kindness and compassion will stay with us all forever. Our mother was transferred to the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics via helicopter for a higher level of care, with a probable aortic dissection. Our diagnosis and plan of care shifter dramatically. We were told she may have metastatic, stage IV lung cancer with a possibility that it could be a rare lung infection.
Our cytology results from the thoracentesis were not available over the weekend. Our "team" really felt our mother could be medically discharged home with high flow oxygen, which she had never required oxygen before. Kristi fought for our mother as a true advocate, expressing our concerns and her own, and persuaded the team to keep our mother for a follow-up visit with her pulmonary physician on the following Monday. She also got Physical Therapy to assess our mother's ability to ambulate stairs and expressed her concerns about discharging our mother with every possible resource available to help us through this time in our lives.