SM C12.2 12-31-22 (657) JHMC RM 326 D2 8:30a – Maria

When Maria arrived, Maria put her scrubs on and went to see Sharon Thomas, the nurse she was relieving. Two of Maria’s patients had been discharged. Ms. Gwen Garcia was assigned to Room 326.

Sharon and I went to answer any questions with the patient’s father and mother. As we entered, the father was with the patient and the mother had her head down, perhaps praying. The father looked up at us and turned to face us. We walked past the mother.

“Hello, Mr. Garcia?”

“No, nurse. My name is Mike Spiro. Gwen is my daughter. Cresha, here, is Gwen’s mother,” he said, pursing his lips and directing his head and lips to point towards Cresha.

Cresha picked her head up for a moment. “Hello Nurse.” she put her head back down.

“My name is Nurse Maria. There are two Marias on staff so my full name is Maria Withers. You may call me Maria or Nurse. I am relieving Nurse Sharon. If you have a question, I can try and answer it. But I will be back in an hour or so if you want to think about it and ask me then.”

“Maria, my friend Ed Dawes is very close with Gwen. He will be here soon. May he visit also?”

Sharon spoke up. “The visiting policy is two visitors who are immediate family members.”

I interrupted. I looked at Sharon and said, “Mike, we don’t have many visitors now in the ICU. It will be ok for now but this may change, ok?”

Sharon nodded. Mike replied, “Thank you, Nurse. Do you know my daughter’s status?” Cresha, who seemed to be resting, picked up her head and looked directly at me. But Sharon answered.

“The notes indicate that Gwen does not seem to have much trauma, but fractures were possible so a full-body CT was performed and we did a full blood workup. There is no evidence of any fractures but we did find that the patient is pregnant. It’s not unusual to see patients that have no evidence of injury in the CT. These things take time to develop and you have a team of doctors watching over your daughter. The primary doctor called neurosurgery. There have been several orders for several follow-up CTs and she is on an MRI schedule. The patient has had a complete neuro check every hour. Now, we are continuing to monitor. But the bottom line is that the doctors don’t know why she is still unconscious. The doctors did not report a neurological response but breathing is ok. The patient was assigned to the ICU and Dr. Swaggart decided to intubate. It is too early to discuss this but you may bring it up with the doctors when they come by on their rounds.”

“Thank you, Sharon,” I then asked if there were any requests or questions. Only Mike responded with a shake of his head. The mother’s head went back down.

Mike looked at me then at Sharon. “Nurse Sharon. You are telling us that my daughter has no problem.”

I replied, “Your daughter is under observation. It is common that an injury does not become apparent until later.”

Cresha looked up. “But it has been over 24 hours and you have seen nothing?”

Sharon replied. “Nothing to this point and she is doing well.”

Mike pretentiously wiped his forehead and was a tad bit sarcastic. “That relieves me.”

I replied, “Your daughter is in the ICU for a reason. It can be very serious. We have her under observation. I suggest you talk to the doctors when they come around on rounds.”

Mike stared out for a second. “Thank you for explaining everything to us.” Sharon was stunned and she turned and walked out of the room.

“Mike… Cresha, I will be back later. It was very nice to meet you.” I turned and walked back to the nurse’s desk.