October 2020
Jonah
Barla
,
RN, BSN
ED
Silver Cross Hospital
New Lenox
,
IL
United States
Jonah stepped right in, helping to assist with blood transfusions, giving hand-off report to the anesthesiologist while the trauma surgeon prepared to operate, attaching IV lines, and cardiac monitoring cords.
An 18-month-old male came in via EMS, after sustaining a bowel evisceration from an ATV accident. Several ED physicians and nurses were involved in the stabilization and resuscitation phase upon arrival to the ED. Since the call was right at a shift change, two other ED physicians helped assist with various interventions simultaneously. After arrival to the OR, it was all hands on deck. The staff count went from a dozen people in the trauma bay to 3 RN staff members besides the anesthesiologist and the doctor. Jonah, the primary ED nurse who transported the patient to the OR, quickly assessed the situation in the OR and determined he needed to stay and assist the OR crew with this very critical patient. He stepped right in, helping to assist with blood transfusions, giving hand-off report to the anesthesiologist while the trauma surgeon prepared to operate, attaching IV lines, and cardiac monitoring cords. While out of his familiar realm of the emergency department, Jonah also helped to prepare equipment for the staff, freeing up the circulating nurse to go fetch additional equipment and supplies. After the surgery, while transitioning the patient from the OR to the flight team crew, the patient’s heart rate dropped into the 30s briefly. Jonah jumped right in providing pediatric CPR compressions. Thanks to the quick actions and expedited care performed by all staff, this patient was able to make it to the operating room from the ED in 39 minutes. He was transferred to a children’s hospital, where he remains in critical but stable condition, in the pediatric ICU.