Nurse Julia is an exceptional RN. She was a calm, caring, and committed nurse when we needed one most; and we are so grateful. Our son S's birth was complicated by hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) and he was admitted to the NICU for therapeutic hypothermia with an uncertain prognosis. Needless to say, we were terrified for the health of our little boy. Nurse Julia's empathy and careful attention to every detail put us at ease.
Nurse Julia was S's daytime nurse for 6 of his 8 days in the NICU. No superlatives would be enough to capture how grateful and impressed we were with Nurse Julia, as a nurse, and as a human being. Perhaps most notably, on S's second hospital day, Nurse Julia identified a subtle pale spot of skin above S's belly button (one that no one else had noticed) and brought it to the attention of the neonatologist. Nurse Julia suspected it could be a complication of S's umbilical vein catheter, and an ultrasound was ordered which showed just that, an umbilical vein thrombus, which, fortunately, due to prompt diagnosis, had not spread to the portal vein. Thus, S avoided anti-coagulation, a complication that could have proven significant due to the cooling protocol and inherent risk for coagulopathy and bleeding. So, it's no exaggeration to say that she very well may have saved our son's life.
In addition to Nurse Julia's careful and diligent patient care, she was an efficient and effective member of the care team. She coordinated with multiple therapies such as PT, OT, SLP, and lactation, always keeping us up to date with plans for the timing of visits and anticipating future needs before we even knew them. As S woke up from the cooling protocol, Nurse Julia supported us in establishing breastfeeding and provided expert advice on reading our son's cues and general newborn care.
Lastly, as two, family medicine physicians who have worked with many nurses, we can honestly say that Nurse Julia is easily one of the very best.