My husband was admitted to the hospital for a routine appendicitis procedure. Unfortunately, we encountered complication after complication post-op and were incredibly frustrated. We were out doing our walk around the floor, and Jamie ran up to us, introduced herself as a nurse on the floor, and corrected the walker we had been using for four days; it was the wrong height. But it didn’t end there. She thankfully ended up being our nurse for the day.

We were out for another walk; my husband was suffering from horrible hiccups and heartburn. She stopped us and started to ask very specific questions about how my husband was feeling because his belly looked very distended. We were on day four post-op, and his bowels had not woken up. He was eating/drinking but was just sitting in his stomach. She asked if we were open to some suggestions to help get things moving, and we eagerly accepted. She suggested we do a suppository to see if it jump-starts, and if that doesn’t work, we should look into an NG tube to help drain his stomach until the bowels wake up.

We ended up with an NG tube, and she was so calm and wonderful during the whole process. We were assigned to her the next day, and she helped us through the final steps of the NG tube. She also asked the Doctor for us to receive permission to wheel him out of the hospital to the top of the parking garage so we could watch the fireworks. When the Doctor approved, unfortunately, that was the last day that she was our nurse. However, that didn’t stop her from checking in on us each time she was in the hospital. We ended up needing to go in for another surgery due to a complication from the first surgery, leaving my husband very sick. We were just waiting for our surgery time when she popped in to say hi, took one look at my husband, and grew concerned that the progress he was making was going in the other direction. So we filled her in where we were but she was still really concerned with how he looked and sounded.

She made the request to call the Rapid Response team to get immediate attention to him. Was so incredibly thankful she went out of her way to check on him. We stayed about another two weeks post-op and were transferred to the Heart Hospital. She still came to check on us during each of her shifts! She truly cares about her patients and listens. She provides amazing advice and suggestions. I truly do not think we would be where we are today if it wasn’t for her. She saved my husband's life.