Two weeks after a postpartum patient was discharged, she returned to the ED hemorrhaging from an unknown source. (Without discussing PHI, this type of bleeding was very abnormal for this particular patient) Sailyn was the Nurse Supervisor in L&D when the patient arrived. She was called to the ED to assist as this patietn was only 2 weeks post-delivery. When Sailyn arrived in ED, she noted immediately that this patient was in real trouble. L&D nurses are used to heavy bleeding and postpartum hemorrhages and because of her expertise, Sailyn decided that with this patient's history and the amount of blood loss she was having, she would be best utilized staying with the patient. She called the Department Supervisor to take her place as charge nurse in L&D and stayed in the ED to help.

The patient's hemorrhaging did not stop and the decision was made very quickly by providers to get this patient to the OR to try to save her life. Sailyn stayed with her. While she wasn't a maternity patient at this point, Sailyn felt like she would be able to assist the OR staff and OB providers because this particular patient had so recently delivered. In the OR, Sailyn helped in any way she could-entering specialized orders for the OB Massive Transfusion Protocol, ordering specific labs, directing an additional L&D nurse sent to help to run for maternity-specific supplies, getting patient labels, and running to the blood bank to get blood, running back to hang the blood then repeating the process over and over. Even though the OR staff were present and completely capable to care for this patient, the OB providers were especially thankful to have Sailyn there. Her ability to know what THIS patient would need and then to quickly and efficiently complete task after task, helped to save this patient's life.

But it doesn't stop there. This mom had a 2 week old baby. After waking up in the ICU the next day, the patient's thoughts were of being reunited with her infant as soon as possible. Sailyn spoke with the ICU staff and instead of this patient going to the unit for care after being stabilized in the ICU, Sailyn made arrangements for the patient to go the Mother/Baby unit for care so that baby could join her! While checking on the patient in the ICU, Sailyn and the ICU staff determined that this patient was not stable enough to be transferred to the M/B unit. Sailyn consulted with the leadership team then made arrangements for the patient to have a bed in the L&D unit for the duration of her stay!

Sailyn's compassion for this patient enabled her to work through the obstacles to ensure this mom be with her baby as soon as she could be.