Margarita McCready
November 2017
Margarita
McCready
,
RN
ICU
Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center
Hillsboro
,
OR
United States

 

 

 

My father was a patient in your ICU and Meg (Margarita) was his daily nurse. I have worked in healthcare for over 25 years and cannot tell you how much I appreciated her caring manner and understanding nature that allowed her to effectively interact with the variety of family dynamics and each family member's individual way of recognizing, dealing with, and for some of us accepting that dad would not be coming home with us. She would always tell us what she was doing and answered a plethora of questions from various visitors about the alarms and monitors that were connected to him.
When we had to make the very difficult decision to turn off the ventilator and let him go, we wanted to have her be the one there helping us through that incredibly difficult time. She was there to quietly support us as we each spent some time alone with him throughout the day. When the time came and I let her know we were ready, she was right there, but unobtrusive and efficient in ensuring he was comfortable and worked with the RT to coordinate turning off the ventilator. She showed tremendous compassion and understanding.
I know that my dad received excellent care from all of the staff, but Meg was just wonderful and I was reassured that he was being taken care of by a well-trained and skilled care team. My thanks to her and the others for helping us navigate through an incredibly difficult and challenging time and allowing my dad to leave this world with peace and grace.