Nicole and Bryna are two of your finest nurses. Individually and together as a team, they helped to ensure my wife's survival and recovery. My wife has been a patient at UW Hospital fighting for her life. Her condition was critical and unstable. Nicole Chow and Bryna Nelson both have exemplified what makes great nurses. Their attention to detail, thoroughness in their exams, follow through in actions, coordination of care between nursing team, respiratory team and consultants, and kindness at the bedside, made my wife's stay in the TLC unit better, safer, and shorter. They exemplified excellent nurse care by starting with thorough, orderly, and clear turnovers between shifts, thoughtful and accurate interdisciplinary rounds, and meticulous care during shifts with lots of TLC towards my wife.

Both Nicole and Bryna took the initiative and requested to be assigned to my wife's care on the few occasions they were not, recognizing how critical my wife's condition was and how important continuity in care is to successful patient recovery. Nicole's and Bryna's critical care experience, coolness under pressure, and attention to detail, helped ensure that they were able to deal with the instability of my wife's condition in addition to dealing with the complexity of her case.

As an example of Nicole's care, the ECMO pump cavitated due to low fluid levels while rounds were taking place one morning. I watched Nicole immediately jump to action, rushing to my wife's bedside while assessing the situation and working with the ECMO nurse to stabilize the ECMO machine and stabilize my wife's vitals. On the various times that my wife's pressure dropped, Nicole was at the ready assessing her condition and taking the necessary actions. It was a reminder of how critical and unstable my wife's condition was, and how important Nicole's prompt actions were.

As an example of Bryna Nelson's care, as my wife was about to undergo dialysis, her MAP blood pressure was critically low. Bryna recognized the critical nature of the blood pressure situation and also recognizing how much in need of dialysis my wife was due to her low blood Ph, Bryna worked with the TLC medical residents and the nephrology team to get the blood pressure up, and dialysis started. She then took the time to help explain to me why dialysis was so critically needed, in a non-technical matter that made sense. Also, Bryna supported the Attendant and night resident in keeping my wife's oxygen levels up in spite of a deteriorating lung condition.

As my wife was being transferred from TLC to IMC, both Bryna and Nicole gave my wife a big hug and wished her well on her continued recovery. Thank you Nicole and thank you Bryna for doing your finest to help ensure my wife survived and recovered! You exemplify the finest in nursing care and I am very thankful that both of you took care of my wife at her most critical time.