Laura
Jasikiewicz
February 2020
Laura
Jasikiewicz
,
RN, BSN
RN Pool Department
Orlando Regional Medical Center
Orlando
,
FL
United States

 

 

 

I was flying to Orlando to visit my son and his family about an hour away from Orlando. I had a fall in the Richmond, VA airport and unknown to me broke 5 ribs, had a flail chest injury and a pneumothorax. It did hurt a lot and I ended up in Orlando Regional. I had the honor and privilege of having Laura as my nurse. Her care, knowledge, and compassion were obvious from the moment I met her. She had a very calm, professional manner. She took the time to get to know me and my husband as people not just patients. She went to the cardiac surgery floor and got me a heart pillow to splint myself when I coughed, sneezed, laughed or sat up. I was told early that morning that they would pull my chest tube and I could be discharged and be able to finish my trip and see my granddaughters. The day went on and no visit from the surgical team, she reached out to them several times and distracted me from my growing impatience. Later that afternoon/evening the Dr. came in and pulled my chest tube. Laura was very comforting to my husband and myself during the process. About 20 minutes later she was in the room and I told her I felt something wet on my side where the chest tube had been pulled. We both looked at my side and blood was running down my side and the dressing was full of pooled blood. She quickly called for help, put the head of my bed down, grabbed 4x4's, took the dressing down so that she could assess the bleed and applied pressure to the site without hurting my broken ribs. It took a while for help to come and the whole time she remained calm and competent. She comforted my husband who turned white as a sheet and had tears coming down his face as she held pressure to the bleed. The doctor came back to the room and was very complimentary of her care of me. He ended up putting stiches in the site. What was a very scary time for my husband and myself was handled in a very calm, professional, knowledgeable way that took care of our fears and concerns. As a nurse of 35 years I was extremely impressed by her overall care during a potential bad outcome emergency. Kudos to you Laura and thank you for your amazing care.