A patient was admitted to CICU post cardiac catheterization with severe lesions. The patient stated that she had nobody to be with her and was afraid of what would happen to her body when she died.
The contacts that the patient had listed were called. They stated that the patient was a “harsh person and hard to please; estranging family and friends who had been helping her.”
Melinda took care of her many other responsibilities, then stayed at the patient’s bedside holding her hand, attempting to contact people for her and reassuring her until the patient became unresponsive, coded and died after 45 minutes of trying to revive her.
Melinda’s compassion and empathy are what the DAISY Award and KU Cares stand for.