Having spent many minutes, hours, and days in the hospital over the past fifteen months of my illness, I have gotten to know several nurses and ancillary members of the hospital. One particular nurse stands out, and this is why. I was recently admitted to the hospital for one of my many surgeries related to a complication. The night before my surgery I was visiting with my youngest daughter. I suddenly began to have difficulty forming words and began to uncontrollably nod my head, and was making other inappropriate facial gestures. Megan Bosch entered the room to set up my Peritoneal Dialysis. She was familiar with me from my many hospitalizations. As soon as she saw my condition she realized this was not normal. She immediately assessed me for stroke, called the primary nurse and then called a rapid response. All the while she was very reassuring and comforting to me as well as to my family. She continued to check on my family and offered them something to drink while I was down at Cat Scan. Throughout the night she came into my room to check on me. If it had not been for my existing relationship with Megan I am not sure that there would have been the same outcome. Two of my other children had called me on the phone while I was experiencing these symptoms and called my wife to ask if everything was ok with me. My wife was not at the hospital at the time but immediately came back to the hospital to check on me and the minute she entered the room she saw Megan and asked if I was ok. Megan had just entered the room to set up my dialysis and so we had not interacted yet. When Megan began to talk to me, she immediately sprang into action beyond her scope of practice for that evening as a PD nurse. Megan began advocating to my primary nurse that we call a Rapid Response, as well as advocating to the Rapid Response CRNP that she was familiar with me and that I was definitely not at my baseline and it appeared something was wrong with me at the time. Megan began a neurological assessment on me while awaiting the Rapid Response arrival. I was taken to CAT scan and then after the diagnostic studies, I was moved to a neurological floor for further monitoring. Megan followed me to this new room assignment to hook me up for my peritoneal dialysis. She continued to be a support for myself as well as my family. Megan also stayed after her shift this day in order to ensure that I was unhooked from dialysis. It was determined that I was experiencing a toxic neurological response to a medication. I truly believe had it not been for Megan being on that shift that my very complicated surgery could have been postponed and that I would not have had a favorable outcome.
Megan displayed extraordinary empathy, compassion, and clinical skills. She helped make a very frightening evening bearable. She is a perfect example of the mission of Penn Medicine.