We first met Kerry on our son's second night on the 5th floor. Her kindness, friendliness, and expertise in everything she did instantly made us feel at ease. We were lucky to have her as our nurse several other nights, but we especially remember her when one-night E was going downhill due to the VP shunt malfunction that was discovered several hours earlier. The Neurosurgeon ordered to schedule the revision for the next day. We had a new nurse after our day nurse had left. Sometime after midnight, his dad noticed E looked different than he normally looked, and he felt it was shunt related.
He went to talk to the charge nurse explaining the situation and requested if possible, to change the nurse to the one who knew E. The charge nurse was able to arrange for Kerry to care for E. After 1:00 AM or so E started to go downhill rapidly and was also showing signs of Bradycardia.
Kerry took immediate action and was able to help coordinate having the entire Neurosurgery team on-site within about an hour. Emergency surgery was performed in the middle of the night that saved our son's life. We do not even want to think about what could have happened if Kerry was not our nurse that night. Kerry knew our son and us, she understood our concerns and did not hesitate to report to the Neurosurgery team what she was observing. This comes with her experience of working on the Neuro floor and the emotional strength to stay firm during the crisis.
Kerry's confidence provided us with trust that the situation was handled in the right way. She never freaked out, never lost her nerve, instead, she remained calm, honest and supportive of us and the most important she advocated for her patient's best interests. That takes not only expertise and professionalism but also gut. We truly believe Kerry was E's angel in disguise that night. Nurses like Kerry are true heroes in scrubs!