Dawnell Keeler
June 2023
Dawnell
Keeler
,
RN
Spine | Joint Replacement Surgery
ChristianaCare Newark Campus
Newark
,
DE
United States
Dawnell was not only my champion who spoke for me to doctors when I had no voice, but she was family when my actual family had to keep working and I was here alone and scared.
I was admitted after a surgery 2 weeks prior in Christiana and an immediate 1 week stay in St. Francis where my surgeon was based out of. After just two days at home, I knew something was wrong. I have a very extensive medical history and have been through many infections (mostly due to Port, TPN, and bacteria in my blood), so this was not my first time, but it was the first time it had attacked my entire left arm from shoulder to hand. The pain was worse than anything I had ever felt in my life, and after back-to-back surgeries to try and wash at the infection, the pain was just getting worse.
I met Dawnell soon after coming to the floor, and she was the first person who had taken the time to look over my history to get a better understanding rather than try to make me recite everything with the pain I was in. She immediately made it a priority to get me comfortable. My BP was in dangerous territory, I was not sleeping at all because of no comfortable position, and with the bacteria now showing up in my lungs and heart, I was losing all faith for the first time in my fight.
My first day meeting Dawnell she walked in and just took over. At this point, I was still crying from the pain, but something told me she had me and was going to make things better. It was Dawnell, hands down, that got me through the second wash out which then included my elbow area. My biggest fear was losing my arm when there was still a very real possibility of losing my life. I should also say the infection began in my chest port (which was immediately removed) but not before it could spread through my body. Dawnell was not only my champion who spoke for me to doctors when I had no voice, but she was family when my actual family had to keep working and I was here alone and scared. She kept the pharmacy straight when they wanted to change doctors’ orders by helping them understand my gastroparesis and dozens of other GI issues that led me to be on the TPN to begin with. You see, my journey did not start with an infection, and she made sure that everyone remembered that, so I did not also lay in the bed suffering from stomach pain on top of everything else.
Dawnell is a nurse, advocate, voice, and after all that still made me feel like a friend and never alone. This may seem simple to you. You may say this is already a nurse’s job. But let me tell you, after 7 years battling cancer and all its side effects, long stays at hospitals including this one, Wilmington, Jefferson, Penn, and a lengthy stay and surgery to save my life at UPMC, Dawnell is special. More nurses like her would equal more lives saved. Everyone asks me how I have made it this far, and the simple answer is the very few nurses like Dawnell who carried me when I was too weak to hold myself. She is a true DAISY Nurse.
I met Dawnell soon after coming to the floor, and she was the first person who had taken the time to look over my history to get a better understanding rather than try to make me recite everything with the pain I was in. She immediately made it a priority to get me comfortable. My BP was in dangerous territory, I was not sleeping at all because of no comfortable position, and with the bacteria now showing up in my lungs and heart, I was losing all faith for the first time in my fight.
My first day meeting Dawnell she walked in and just took over. At this point, I was still crying from the pain, but something told me she had me and was going to make things better. It was Dawnell, hands down, that got me through the second wash out which then included my elbow area. My biggest fear was losing my arm when there was still a very real possibility of losing my life. I should also say the infection began in my chest port (which was immediately removed) but not before it could spread through my body. Dawnell was not only my champion who spoke for me to doctors when I had no voice, but she was family when my actual family had to keep working and I was here alone and scared. She kept the pharmacy straight when they wanted to change doctors’ orders by helping them understand my gastroparesis and dozens of other GI issues that led me to be on the TPN to begin with. You see, my journey did not start with an infection, and she made sure that everyone remembered that, so I did not also lay in the bed suffering from stomach pain on top of everything else.
Dawnell is a nurse, advocate, voice, and after all that still made me feel like a friend and never alone. This may seem simple to you. You may say this is already a nurse’s job. But let me tell you, after 7 years battling cancer and all its side effects, long stays at hospitals including this one, Wilmington, Jefferson, Penn, and a lengthy stay and surgery to save my life at UPMC, Dawnell is special. More nurses like her would equal more lives saved. Everyone asks me how I have made it this far, and the simple answer is the very few nurses like Dawnell who carried me when I was too weak to hold myself. She is a true DAISY Nurse.