Stroke Patient Reflection

On April 4th, 2017, I had the opportunity to be part of the care team of Medical City Denton’s (MCD) Emergency Department (ED) as a student nurse. Shortly after the morning ED shift huddle, a patient in her mid-fifties was brought in by paramedics due to a stroke. Upon arrival to the ED, the patient was initially responsive to verbal commands, but took a turn for the worse as she was returning from the radiology department after a computerized tomography (CT) scan. The CT scan indicated mid-brain internal bleeding into the intracranial space, confirming this as a hemorrhagic stroke. The primary neurosurgeon, Dr. Akwasi Boah, was called in to perform a ventriculostomy to reduce the intracranial pressure before the patient would be transferred to a neurology facility. The ED staff took quick action to prepare the main trauma room prior to Dr. Boah’s arrival. The husband was permitted to see his wife for a moment before the procedure. Dr. Boah arrived and placed a ventriculostomy for this patient. The procedure went smoothly and the patient was transported by helicopter to a specialized facility for the remainder of her care. …show more content…
I also felt my focus heighten to the incoming trauma patient. The ED trauma team stabilized the patient and I felt relieved, but this would be very short lived. Shortly thereafter, the ED trauma team would again be called upon as the patient’s status deteriorated on the way back from radiology. Every moment after the initial onset of the patient’s worsening condition became our fight against the clock to get her stabilized. The sooner that we could transport this patient would mean a higher probability towards a better