Tony came to us in June of 2006 as an experienced critical care RN. He and his family had just moved from Louisiana as one of the many post-disaster families from Hurricane Katrina. Tony embodied our organizational values prior to arriving at UTMC and has demonstrated them every day since he has been here. These remarks are from one of our RNs who worked with Tony through Hurricane Katrina:

Dedication

Even after relief team B showed up, everyone was on a 30-day mandatory evacuation, so we did 6 days at work and 6 days away from the city for the next 5 weeks. Lunch one day was a tomato and we were thankful to have it.

Compassion

You can't imagine the fear in the patients'/families' eyes when a level 4 hurricane is beating on the metal shutters, but we had to show no fear and comfort them through it all.
Collaboration

We had to join units, work outside of our specialty, pull together with all disciplines in order to provide excellent care in the absence of a normal every day shift.

Innovation

We moved the patient fridge to be able to plug into an emergency plug; we had ventilated patients in a unit that was 105 degrees, so we wet wash clothes and put them in the freezer to make cool rags for our patients/families and staff.

Integrity

We had no choice, but to execute the utmost level of integrity. It's what we signed up for even though no one could have ever imagined working in those conditions when they were coming through nursing school.

Excellence

In MCC, Tony is always offering to help others. He is someone we can always count on to have a smile on his face. He has helped us countless times with our patients and he is known hospital-wide as an IV starting specialist. Tony also comes in on his days off to teach BLS classes. He is great with families and is able to bring his sense of humor to any situation. He has extensive knowledge of critical care and is a great resource in our unit.

In his spare time, Tony is a Boy Scout Leader, teaching the very values he brings to work on a daily basis into the hearts and minds of the children of tomorrow.

This is an example of the care Tony provides:

I came in to the shift with beds 2 and 3. Tony had bed 1, which was a patient receiving CRRT. I received report on my patients and as soon as day shift left, things started getting crazy.

My patient in bed 2 had been coughing up large amounts of blood and was supposed to go to Interventional Radiology (IR) for an embolization procedure at 8 o'clock. Meanwhile, my patient in bed 3, who had been extubated a few hours previously, wasn't doing very well. I was in bed 3 talking with the family and trying to improve my patient's breathing. The family for bed 2 was anxiously waiting to talk to me about the procedure. Before I could talk to them, we had to call an intubation code on bed 3.

During the code, Tony stepped in to take care of the patient in bed 2. He explained everything about the IR procedure to the family and even got a consent for a central line since the patient would need one when she came back. He got my patient ready for the procedure and helped roll her out with transport.

I didn't ask him to do any of that. He had plenty to do with his CRRT patient, but he took the time to help my patient and family. There were four or five people in the room who all had questions and Tony answered them all. He always goes above and beyond, not only to help his co-workers, but to do what is best for the patient.