Karen gave compassionate care to a patient in the CTICU. The patient had a long length of stay and many surgeries. The family had decided to withdraw care. The wife could not be present during the time of withdrawal and asked Karen to hold her husband's hand in her place. Karen assured the wife that she would.
There were two notes made in the chart, one by the Palliative care nurse practitioner and the other by the patient's heart failure cardiologist. Both notes mentioned that Karen was present and held the patient's hand the entire time during the withdrawal process to when the patient ceased to breathe, and that the patient experienced a peaceful death. A progress note of this type had never been identified before during the chart review process.