Yu Lang Chen
October 2021
Yu Lang
Chen
,
RN
Labor and Delivery
Emanate Health Queen of Valley Hospital
West Covina
,
CA
United States
Irene's skills, kindness, and patient advocacy is unlike anything I have seen before in my seven years as an ICU nurse.
I am writing to tell the amazing experience my partner and I had with Irene RN (nightshift) that was truly life changing. We encountered Irene after 76 hours of labor, a home birth transfer, and after learning that I was COVID + and would require a c-section under general anesthesia for failure to progress. This meant that I would be recovering alone without my baby or my partner in the OR and that my baby would be in the nursery without his parents until I recovered from general anesthesia.
Seeing our sadness at our current situation, Irene offered to check on me one more time to see if I progressed. Realizing that I had finally made it to 8 cm, Irene called the Dr and convinced him to give me 1.5 more hours to try on my own before performing the c-section. After 1.5 hours of position changes, pitocin, and breathing, the OB returned to find me complete and ready to push. To say he was surprised was an understatement. With nine pushes, I delivered my baby boy vaginally with only a small tear. We had been told that no amount of time or medication would allow me to delivery naturally and that the c-section was inevitable.
Irene's skills, kindness, and patient advocacy is unlike anything I have seen before in my seven years as an ICU nurse. Without her, I would have definitely had a c-section under general, and neither I nor my partner would see our son enter the world, not to mention prolonged recovery and pain.
I do not have words to thank her, she changed my family's lives, and I feel endlessly lucky that she was the nurse that walked into my room that night. Since I was COVID+, Irene did all this in full PPE without leaving my room once to eat or use the restroom. I know many nurses who would have taken me to the OR to avoid prolonged contact with a COVID+ patient. She chose to do what was more challenging for her but better for me. She helped my dreams come true and believed in me every step of the way. She is the best nurse I have had the pleasure of meeting, as a patient or a nurse, and this extraordinary advocacy and patient care needs to be recognized.
Seeing our sadness at our current situation, Irene offered to check on me one more time to see if I progressed. Realizing that I had finally made it to 8 cm, Irene called the Dr and convinced him to give me 1.5 more hours to try on my own before performing the c-section. After 1.5 hours of position changes, pitocin, and breathing, the OB returned to find me complete and ready to push. To say he was surprised was an understatement. With nine pushes, I delivered my baby boy vaginally with only a small tear. We had been told that no amount of time or medication would allow me to delivery naturally and that the c-section was inevitable.
Irene's skills, kindness, and patient advocacy is unlike anything I have seen before in my seven years as an ICU nurse. Without her, I would have definitely had a c-section under general, and neither I nor my partner would see our son enter the world, not to mention prolonged recovery and pain.
I do not have words to thank her, she changed my family's lives, and I feel endlessly lucky that she was the nurse that walked into my room that night. Since I was COVID+, Irene did all this in full PPE without leaving my room once to eat or use the restroom. I know many nurses who would have taken me to the OR to avoid prolonged contact with a COVID+ patient. She chose to do what was more challenging for her but better for me. She helped my dreams come true and believed in me every step of the way. She is the best nurse I have had the pleasure of meeting, as a patient or a nurse, and this extraordinary advocacy and patient care needs to be recognized.