Krystal shared the following story to recognize her team. What she fails to mention is that she was the orchestrator. Krystal is a beautiful example of servant leadership. She was seeking to recognize the efforts of the collaborative team when they truly were taking her lead. Krystal embodied both the heart of nursing and of motherhood.
L was flown to us from out of town as a 4 days post-partum brain bleed. Because she was intubated and unresponsive, I spoke with the husband on admission about his wife's wishes regarding nursing her baby. He stated it is all she has ever done with all of their kids and she highly valued it. He also stated he doesn't know what to give his son and the last hospital gave him a small disposable formula bottle to get him by on his trip to Wichita. I went straight to my office and called the NICU to ask for a breast pump, which they quickly complied. When I went to pick it up I was met by a lactation nurse who offered to come over and educate my staff and help get us set up. We immediately began providing pumping services to her multiple times a day through each shift. The lactation nurse came over multiple times during her ICU stay to make sure she was doing ok. The night of her admission I had a nurse who stayed an additional 4 hours while a night shift nurse caught some sleep so that she could come in at 11 pm and continue to provide the extra care and help support L and everyone's hope that one day she will be able to nurse her baby again. After getting all of that settled, I then made a call to women's services, who donated blankets, diapers, wipes, and formula to the family to help get them started as they had to leave home abruptly and came with nothing.
After overcoming some major hurdles and setbacks, and after 17 days of being on life support, L was extubated and awake. She was then able to transfer to IMU. The staff in IMU and eventually in 10tower continued to support L's wishes and provided pumping services as she was still not in a position to fully complete this task herself. L was dismissed to rehab and was then released to home. She was able to successfully take over nursing her baby and when they came back to visit the staff months later, they reported the 5-month-old was 100% breastfed and eager to start solids. He also was able to overcome some underweight challenges and was thriving!
Giving this mom the opportunity to have this experience with her infant took an entire team! First, L survived what seemed un-survivable and is now walking, talking, and living life with her family and children. Second, she is able to continue to have the experience with her infant as she always had hoped. Huge thank you to every single person who touched her life as this is the reason we all care so much about each patient! Thank you to the nursing staff in every department she stayed in, to the neuro intensivists team, therapy services (for pushing her beyond her comfort zone), the chaplains, case management, NICU and their lactation services team, women's services, and risk management for donating baby items!