Dylan is the epitome of nursing excellence here at MUSC. We have a twenty year old gentleman who is a paratrooper in the US Army that has been in MICU for over two months. This patient has been through it all! It is truly a miracle that he is alive. He is ventilator dependent, has lost a significant amount of weight, and is extremely weak. As an Army paratrooper, needing help to even stand up is a terrifying change for him. The disease process has robbed him of his independence and he has a hard time emotionally coping with his circumstances.
Dylan has shown to be an exceptionally positive influence on this patient on multiple occasions. Dylan genuinely cares about this patient, treats him like he is family, comes in on his days off to visit and spend time with him. While at work much of his day is spent keeping this patient motivated to stay on task and complete daily therapies with speech, physical therapy, occupational therapy and nursing. Physical therapy sessions are the most challenging parts of his day and cause this patient a lot of anxiety, which has become a barrier to his progress.
Today Dylan changed into his exercise clothes, turned on his own "work-out" music, and did physical therapy WITH the patient. Dylan challenged him; for every one exercise the patient did, Dylan did 10! It was awesome to watch Dylan encourage this patient in such a fun and supportive way. They both were sweating at the end of the physical therapy session and the patient was smiling and laughing. It looked like Dylan gave him a little bit of his "sparkle" back. It was truly touching.