Sarah Lebo
February 2019
Sarah
Lebo
,
BSN, RN, CCRN
Nursing Float Team
Children's Hospital Colorado
Aurora
,
CO
United States
Sarah met my son E the day before Thanksgiving when we presented at the ED with possible urosepsis. E is extremely complicated and has had many hospitalizations relating to severe urinary infections and sepsis. We spent over 8 hours that night trying to gain IV access to start E on life-saving antibiotics and talking about his history of extremely complicated vascular access with Sarah. I was exhausted and emotionally devastated because of the pain and fear we were putting E through with every failed poke.
Sarah saw through to the heart of the situation and promised me that she was going to reach out to E's care team to advocate for a mediport so that we would not continue having this issue with delayed treatment. Many people have made advocacy promises but none ever came through, so I did not expect to hear from Sarah. Imagine my shock when a few days later I received the most in-depth analysis of E's PIV history I have ever seen. It was obvious that she put in hours of work combing through E's medical file to create an astonishing document to submit to his entire care team that outlined why a Mediport would not only be the safest for E but also assists in minimizing his medical trauma.
As his parents, we had been asking about a more durable form of vascular access but were denied by each provider. Sarah's work in compiling the data made all the difference as many of his specialists only were aware of visits that were under their purview and not of what was happening during visits under other specialties. Now, less than 3 days after that email was sent, almost all of E's specialists agree that he is a candidate for a mediport. Without Sarah's intervention, I believe so strongly that our requests for durable access would have continued to fall on deaf ears and the extreme delay in IV antibiotic treatment while establishing access could very likely have cost us E's life at some point. Sarah's advocacy is going to be life-changing for E and for our family. She is the absolute definition of excellence in nursing care for vulnerable patients.
Sarah saw through to the heart of the situation and promised me that she was going to reach out to E's care team to advocate for a mediport so that we would not continue having this issue with delayed treatment. Many people have made advocacy promises but none ever came through, so I did not expect to hear from Sarah. Imagine my shock when a few days later I received the most in-depth analysis of E's PIV history I have ever seen. It was obvious that she put in hours of work combing through E's medical file to create an astonishing document to submit to his entire care team that outlined why a Mediport would not only be the safest for E but also assists in minimizing his medical trauma.
As his parents, we had been asking about a more durable form of vascular access but were denied by each provider. Sarah's work in compiling the data made all the difference as many of his specialists only were aware of visits that were under their purview and not of what was happening during visits under other specialties. Now, less than 3 days after that email was sent, almost all of E's specialists agree that he is a candidate for a mediport. Without Sarah's intervention, I believe so strongly that our requests for durable access would have continued to fall on deaf ears and the extreme delay in IV antibiotic treatment while establishing access could very likely have cost us E's life at some point. Sarah's advocacy is going to be life-changing for E and for our family. She is the absolute definition of excellence in nursing care for vulnerable patients.