I worked with Carly Gremore and staffing was already bare bones. Carly was the charge nurse and a patient presented with crushing chest pain and dangerously high blood pressures. This patient was found to have an extensive aortic dissection. Carly helped me stabilize this patient even though there were many other lesser concerns in the department and made sure I had everything I needed to care for this patient successfully.

This patient needed emergency surgery, but the Cardio scrub tech was already in another procedure and could not be pulled - meaning the surgery could not happen at Muskegon even though the surgeon was there and available. Butterworth was full and could not accept. We were waiting for a call back from UofM and were concerned this patient would decompensate/code anytime. Carly called surgery on site and begged them to call anyone they have on their staff so this surgery could take place to give this patient the best outcome. Five minutes passed and still no call back from U of M. Surgery called and stated a scrub tech that could do the surgery was on the way in as they spoke. Within minutes the surgeon was down to see the patient and the surgical RNs were there to take the patient to the OR.

I cannot express how much Carly affected this outcome. If the patient had to be transferred, it's that much more of a delay to the lifesaving surgical intervention the patient so direly needed. Because she advocated for a scrub tech to be called, even though no one was on call, the patient had a better chance for survival. The ER is so often forgotten about as it is usually such a small period of the patient's stay, but it sets the groundwork for the rest of the patient's experience.