Joe Zappulla showed great compassion towards his patient and the patient's family last night. The patient was a cardiac arrest patient in his 50s with a long downtime and initial CPR being performed by the patient's teenage son and wife. The patient has gone through the hypothermia process and various tests to determine what his outcome is going to be. The situation is complicated because the head CT done on dayshift was read by the radiologist as a normal head CT; however, the neurologist that was consulted says that the head CT was read wrong and that it actually showed profound anoxia, hinting at a very poor outcome.
The patient's family, understandably, had a very hard day receiving at first good news then the worst news possible. The patient was incredibly unstable when Joe came on and an MRI needed to be done to give the family information they needed to decide what to do for their loved one. Joe did a truly incredible job taking care of this patient and stabilizing him enough to endure a rocky trip to MRI which was, thankfully, uneventful. Joe handled the situation with poise and compassion, updating the family frequently and giving the patient the best care he could receive.
Joe has been in ICU for around a year now, but his care reflected a maturity and skill that even the most experienced ICU nurses would find hard to compete with. He asked for help when he needed it, communicated with his charge nurses and physicians, and ultimately performed at an exemplary level.
After the MRI was completed, with about 20 family members waiting in the waiting room for results, he got a bit of a runaround with the neurologists and physicians not wanting to come in and update the family with results, but that was not ok with Joe. He advocated for the family and demanded they get the care and respect they deserved. The end result was that the neurologist came in at 2am and updated the family and held a family conference.
I was so proud of Joe for advocating for his patient and family, and I know many nurses would have shirked the accountability on this and waited until dayshift to provide an update. It was hard information for a family to receive and Joe was emotionally supportive and kind, compassionate and dutiful and, last but not least, inspiring to his coworkers and myself as to what a nurse should be. It is emotionally draining to go through that with a family, especially when a child is involved and very emotional. I was truly touched by Joe's actions.