My 25 year old wife came into the ER having battled an illness for almost 2 weeks. In the last 48 hours, my wife became significantly tachycardia, short of breath, flushed, and hypoxic. It took a lot to persuade my wife to be evaluated, but she finally agreed. When my wife arrived and was triaged, she was scared as all the sounds in triage indicated that her vitals were not as stable as we originally thought. She was severely hypoxic, had tachycardia, and appeared to be in the tripod position, attempting to find a position of comfort.

After answering all the questions, she was immediately taken back to a room where we initially met Lauren. Lauren Drost, RN, was not only calm during this hectic time, but she would often stop to hold my wife's hand and offer a sense of comfort during this challenging time. Lauren was quickly able to gain IV access and began administering IV fluids, antibiotics, steroids, blood thinning agents, and antiemetics. My wife was placed on High-flow nasal cannula to help her breathing rate and saturation. Lauren then informed us that a chest X-ray would be obtained to look for any pneumonia, and we could go for a CT if there was some uncertainty of blood clots in the lungs.

After confirming pneumonia in my wife's left lung, a CT determined that she had bilateral pulmonary embolisms and would require an echocardiogram to determine heart strain. Proactively, she was made a PERT Level 2 to bring in cardiothoracic surgery, Interventional Radiology, and Pulmonary physicians. During this time, Lauren remained at the bedside explaining everything that was going to happen and who was going to introduce themselves to us in a short time. Lauren was strong and knowledgeable during this time, often advocating for my wife when she needed critical care services. Lauren provided compassion and empathy to us as the possibility of going on ECMO became greater than we ever intended. Even though we did not go on ECMO, which scared both of us. But Lauren was there and offered a shoulder to lean on and cry. She was nothing short of excellent and her managers should be delighted to have someone this compassionate and driven on their staff.

Although Lauren and I are colleagues, I would not have wanted anyone else to be in direct patient care of my wife during the early morning hours on Wednesday. Lauren eventually handed my wife and I over to the ICU floor where her care continued, but we still talk about how amazing, kind, and compassionate Lauren was during the first 2 hours of my wife's hospitalization. Through all of this, Lauren also juggled a whole assignment of other critically ill patients. I hope Lauren is recognized by LGH as I assure you, she did amazing work and can only speculate that she continues to do amazing work for every patient she is the primary nurse for. It was an absolute pleasure and if the day ever comes again, we hope Lauren is working because we are confident that we'll be in excellent hands!