It was a slow morning in the emergency department, which is very rare. I went with my charge nurse, Amber Graham, responding to Interventional Radiology following a rapid response page out. We don't receive rapid response pages, but we always go to assist. They called a rapid response after a patient became tachycardic and hypotensive during a liver biopsy where they go through the internal jugular. We arrived into the room and the patient was anxious, diaphoretic and confused. Amber immediately jumped in and assisted respiratory therapy in obtaining an ABG. Amber calmly talked to the patient the whole time as to what we were doing and what was going on. His blood pressure at this point was tanking and she suggested he be started on Levophed, since it wouldn't cause more workload on the heart. She looked at me at one point and stated, "this guy is bleeding somewhere and we need to get him to CT immediately before he codes."
I went to CT and advised them that we were bringing a patient over from IR for a chest, abdomen and pelvis. After what seemed like the longest time, we packaged him up and went over to CT where we scanned him as best we could. The radiologist urgently called a cardiothoracic surgeon and we rushed the patient upstairs to the operating room where we then left it in their and God's hands. The entire time Amber remained calm, professional, respectful, but assertive and confident as to what was happening with this patient. Amber went with her gut instincts and literally saved this man's life. I cannot even begin to describe the intensity of this situation and she remained focused and did what needed to be done.
She is always my go-to nurse when I have a problem or a question. If she does not know the answer she will find out and we will get through it together. I aspire to be as great a nurse as she is in very aspect of her patient care and her heroic action in this case.