Jennifer Blevins cared for me on two consecutive nights, July 18 and 19. I had suffered a bad fall while clearing timber at the local Boy Scout camp and sustained a bimalleolar fracture of the left ankle. The fracture was displaced and there was a great deal of tissue damage to the lower leg. The displacement was reduced in the ED under conscious sedation and I was moved to 3 South that evening. Surgery was planned for early the next morning.
I was in incredible pain. I was covered in mud and sawdust. I could not go to the bathroom. Jennifer worked on me virtually the entire night. She was able to get a dilaudid PCA started, she placed me on oxygen, normal saline and got a foley in. She cleaned me up in preparation for surgery. I had my watch on and was noted the minutes passing until I could push the PCA button. My O2 sat was falling. She stood next to me and encouraged me to breathe. I remember asking her if "this is what 10 out of 10 pain is," and she said, "Yes." I do not think that she sat down the entire night.
She got me through the first night and bundled me up as I went down to surgery. I got out of the PACU in the early afternoon and slept until the evening. I woke up around the time she came back on her shift. I remember looking up from my bed and thinking, "Thank God, she's back!" She got me through the postop night and then I never saw her again.
As I left the hospital I kept reminding myself that I would have to thank her. I work with nurses all day long, every day. Jennifer Blevins demonstrated a superb knowledge base, tireless devotion to duty, lightning-quick decision-making and solid emotional stability under stress. That first night was hell and she got me through it. As I have healed and regained much of my strength, I have reflected on her care for me. Her example of professionalism is a lesson to me and has inspired me to recommit to the same sensitivity and devotion to duty that I witnessed in her.