Lindsey was the blessing we needed during our prolonged hospital stay at Swedish First Hill. We were in the hospital for the delivery of our twin boys for 4 days. Our labor was wonderful, but during my delivery, there was a complication that resulted in me delivering our first baby boy vaginally and our second baby boy via C-Section. Needless to say, the morning after my two different types of deliveries was very painful. I did not want to even move. Also, the delivery was very traumatizing, and my husband and I were going on almost 48 hours without quality sleep. Lindsey was there to encourage and help me during my first very painful walk to the bathroom after my C-Section. Lindsey taught my husband how to change his first several diapers, burrito swaddle our baby boys, syringe feed our son who had significant feeding issues, and so much more. Lindsey went above and beyond to be everything and everyone we needed during our prolonged hospital stay because I couldn't have my mom, sisters, and best friends there with me.
Lindsey treated us as if we were a part of her family by giving us highly individualized care and being our biggest advocate during our stay. For instance, the second night we stayed on the postpartum floor, there was a nurse who was very discouraging while we were under her care during the night shift. I felt so discouraged and low after that night that I was in tears when Lindsey asked how I was doing the next morning. I was a new mom of twin boys, both our babies were experiencing significant feeding issues, both my husband and I were running on very little sleep, and we felt as if we were just a number to our previous nurse. Lindsey was a great listening ear, caregiver, and advocate. After taking in our concerns, we made a care plan for the remainder of our care with her that would assist us in getting more quality rest while caring for our children's feeding issues.
Another experience that truly touched us and made Lindsey a member of our family forever is an experience in which Lindsey definitely exuberated compassion, justice, excellence, dignity, integrity, and safety. We were a few days into our hospital stay and I had already discussed with my OB that we wanted to stay as long as possible to make sure that my boys and I were recovering adequately before going home. My OB agreed. From Lindsey's and my husband's and my understanding, I was going to be heading home on Saturday per the plan that I had made with my OB. Lindsey was always being sure to follow our care plan and was very diligent in letting us know about any changes or new information. She also used shared decision-making when it came to making changes to our care plan. One day an OB colleague of my primary OB and one of the pediatricians came into our room while I was half-naked and asleep without knocking and insisted that we go home that very day (which was Thursday) because they felt we needed to go home to "rip the band-aid off" as one of the physicians put it. These two physicians were insisting that my husband and I were making an unnecessarily big deal of our children's feeding issues and ultimately ended up convincing us that we should go home that day despite our deep concerns about going home early with the significant feeding issues that our two boys were experiencing. I cried after speaking with these physicians due to the very condescending and shaming tone these two had. These physicians were basically telling us we needed to man and woman up regarding issues our kids were experiencing and stop hiding out at the hospital. However, we were very concerned, because we felt that we did not know how to safely independently care for their feeding issues at home yet.
Lindsey came in and asked what happen after she saw I was in tears as the physicians left our room. I let Lindsey know the plans of the physicians to send us home early and how concerned and afraid we were to go home with unsustainable ways to feed our babies and ensure their weight gain at home. Lindsey completely agreed with our concerns as she had been alongside us for many hours brainstorming ways to avoid our boys losing a significant amount of weight as a result of their feeding issues. Immediately she went and found those two doctors and demanded that they look at the evidence in the chart that clearly displayed that it would be unsafe and a huge injustice to send us home early without a proper plan and improvement in our sons' ability to feed in a more sustainable manner. After seeing the evidence that Lindsey presented these physicians were profoundly regretful of shaming us for being concerned parents. However, we felt that the trust had been destroyed as they had failed to promote continuity of care by communicating with our nurse and by failing to even read the documentation of our sons' poor progress in feeding during our stay. Lindsey was an amazing advocate for us and helped us to elevate our concerns about these physicians' poor bedside manner and negligence in order to avoid any other families having to go through this experience. Thank you, Lindsey, for making our care very memorable and high-quality!