Salvador Gomez, RN, VABC

On Friday Sal was placing a PICC Line on a patient in CCU. Fridays are historically really busy for the PICC team trying to put lines in before the weekend so the patients can have secure vascular access for the weekend. My patient in CCU 9 had lost her IV the night before her diagnosis was GIB and I know she was high risk for rebleed and that if she did, she would need blood transfusions which means she needs an IV. I caught up with Sal as he was about to start the PICC line in the other patient’s room and asked, "Can you please place a peripheral IV in my patient?" I was prepared to plead my case! But Sal didn’t skip a beat... "Sure, of course, no problem" was the response I got. He grabbed his ultrasound and placed a 20g IV in my patient’s arm! What a relief.

Later in the shift, the patient did have an emergency she had a respiratory arrest/code blue and was found to be rebleeding her hgb was critically low and she needed blood transfusions ASAP. While the docs were placing central lines, I was able to start blood transfusions in the line Sal placed. He really helped save this woman. Sal always goes out of his way to help us out. The entire vascular access team is always great at helping patients.