I underwent Gastric Sleeve surgery and went to stay in the Post Surg department. Angela Rice was my nurse for majority of the day. The next day, I ended up having an episode where I passed out right before Angela arrived for her morning shift. When she got there and was informed by a different nurse, Angela spoke with my surgeon who just thought I had a Vasovagal. A few hours later, Angela was in my room getting my medications ready and I told her I felt like I was going to be sick. Angela ran to get me a puke bag and when she got to me with it I slumped back in the chair my eyes rolled back in my head; I started to shake and then finally after about 15 seconds I came back to consciousness. I asked her if she saw that and she said she did and I told her that was exactly what happened earlier.
She immediately got on the phone with the doctor again trying to explain it was more than just a Vasovagal; that I actually looked like I was seizing or something more serious. She wanted to get me on Telemetry to monitor my heart in case it happened again and he finally gave the ok. Fast forward to that afternoon, I was in the room with my husband and I told him I felt like I was going to be sick and then the same thing happened again. When I came to I told him to get someone. Angela had been hovering outside my room ready to jump into action all day if it happened again and she met my husband at the door and she rushed in and made sure the Telemetry was all hooked up correctly and pulled up her computer to see what the Telemetry showed. It showed I had flatlined for 15 seconds. At that time she called in the Crash Team and 20 some doctors/nurses came rushing in doing a bunch of tests and was determined I needed to go straight to Cardiology for an Echo Scan of my heart and I was informed I needed to have a Pacemaker put in immediately.
Angela stayed with me the whole way down to Cardiology and cried with me knowing how emotional I was and it just showed how much her patients really mean to her. She has checked in on me every day since and has been my true hero and lifesaver. If she hadn't have been so persistent with calling my surgeon multiple times I'm not sure I would be here today to write this nomination for her. Please help me express my gratitude to her. She is an amazing RN and you should be proud to have her as part of your team!