Sayoko and those working with her saved my husband's life. My husband was at Emory University Hospital for thoracic surgery with Dr. F. Once his surgery was completed, we all thought he was well on his way to recovery and felt at ease leaving the hospital that evening to let him rest. His day nurse, N, rounded with his night nurse, Sayoko, at the bedside, which was something that I had not experienced/witnessed in the several hospital days/nights he had been admitted.

N did not like the output that was coming out of my husband's chest tube and specifically pointed it out to Sayoko to keep an eye on the amount and consistency because it did not seem right and to get the appropriate people involved if needed. Now I cannot speak to the exact specifics of what happened within the next few hours, but what I can say is that if Sayoko had not paid close attention to this and his stats he would have bled out overnight. After his surgery, at about 11 pm, he had an output of 850ml of blood...I since have learned it only takes 1.5 liters to bleed out. He was rushed back into surgery with Dr. F to excavate the bleeding in his chest and find out where the bleeding was coming from. I have never been more scared in my entire life than I was receiving that phone call that he was in surgery due to bleeding into his chest.

His dad and I rushed back to the hospital and waited (not so patiently) in his hospital room until we heard the news. He called at 11:15 pm to tell us about the surgery, and we did not receive any updates until 2:30 am. Dr. F called and told us it took some significant time to find the bleed, but they finally did and were able to stop it. This could have been fatal. My husband is a 37-year-old father of a 3-year-old little girl. I cannot thank her and Dr. F enough for their excellent care and attention to detail. Thank you for allowing us to have more time with him. What you do matters. Please never forget those lives that you are changing daily.