samantha sam gehring, RN

I would like to acknowledge Sam Gehring for exceptional patient care today.

The patient she cared for had a history of hemicolectomy and diverting ileostomy in an attempt to control chronic GI bleeding from intestinal AVMs. Unfortunately, he continued to bleed intermittently into his ileostomy bag requiring admits transfusions, which is how he landed in ED obs.

Just prior to discharge, his ileostomy bag once again filled with dark red blood. Rather than just empty the bag, Sam took the initiative to remove the bag completely and clean up the patient, which in itself was a difficult task because the patient could only tolerate sitting in an upright position. With some persistence, Sam actually found the bleeding source. It was a bleeding vessel right at the skin-stoma junction.

This was significant because the bleeding source had eluded providers on prior admits and was also not apparent to the wound care nurse who changed his ileostomy bag earlier in the day. With this patient's history, it would have been easy to assume the bleeding was coming from another intestinal AVM.

Due to Sam's initiative, the site of bleeding was finally discovered and proper care provided, which will hopefully stop this patient's recurring cycle of admissions, transfusions, and scopes. Great work on Sam's part!