The husband of a patient called me to praise Aleesha for her compassionate care and empathy. His wife has dementia and was recently diagnosed with advanced gastric cancer. She was referred to our ED for admission by her surgeon for port placement, however, the husband was under the impression that she was here to have a PET scan. This is where the saga started. These are his words:
"We were sent to the emergency room to have a COVID test prior to her PET scan. I made it clear to the doctors that if she has advanced cancer, I would not pursue any treatment. By the time she was admitted, it was late at night around 10-10:30 p.m. and because we live in Wauchula, I decided to sleep in my car rather than drive home. (During this pandemic we had a very restrictive policy on visitation.) To my surprise, I received a phone call from a nurse to inform me that I would be allowed to stay with my wife rather than sleep in the car. After my wife's procedure, we were eager to go home, however, neither a surgeon nor the admitting physician was available to discharge us. You can imagine how frustrated I was, especially that this whole admission was unexpected. However, Aleesha took the time to find a physician to sign the discharge paperwork, and wheeled my wife to the car herself! She did not have to do all of these things, she was unbelievable. I would like her to be recognized for being there for us when we felt misinformed."