That wonderful Tuesday
that I entered the Emergency Department at Rush.
I had worked all day.
I was very tired.
I had had a meeting with the,
West Side Anchor Mission Employee Resource Group.
And someone in the resource group,
was just very transparent
about how they were feeling that day,
which allowed me to be transparent
about how I was feeling that day.
When I got off of work,
I was heading home,
and one of the fellow council members,
her name is Audrey.
She gave me a call,
and she says "Chanel, you were on my mind,
and I wanted to check on you."
She heard how I was sounding in my breathing.
I did not know how I was sounding
and I was going home to go to sleep.
She strongly encouraged me to go
to the Emergency Department.
She said, you know, "Chanel, you live alone,
you don't want to die alone."
And, I said 'OK Ms. Audrey,
I am going to the Emergency Department.'
She had recently had COVID infection.
And unfortunately several weeks later,
had presented to our hospital
with a major blood clot
that had gone up to her lungs.
And this caused her to have cardiac dysfunction
and low oxygen levels necessitating a hospital admission.
Every Rush professional that I encountered,
they said "Ms. Smith, it is very
good that you came in today."
If I would have gone home
to go to sleep,
I don't know if I would be here,
talking to you.
The Rush pulmonary embolism response team,
it's a team made up of interventional cardiologists,
radiologists and cardiac surgeons.
And we basically will
treat and evaluate patients with pulmonary embolism
and come up with the best
treatment plan individualized to the patient.
It was like, I don't know, seven doctors.
And I said, "You're all here for me?"
And they said, "Yes."
And it made me feel so good.
In Chanel's particular case,
she was able to be considered for a minimally invasive
technique where we're actually able to go up into the lung,
where the blood clot is, and administer
blood clot busting medication locally in that area
over several hours to help dissolve it.
So as soon as they are stable enough
to come out of the intensive care unit,
they're moved on to a hospitalists care or
on to the general medicine floors.
Patients nowadays are so sick
that when they come into the hospital,
oftentimes it isn't just one problem that they have.
They may have multiple problems
that affect all different organ systems
and you need a doctor who's able
to manage all of those simultaneously.
Everyone from the PCTs,
the environmental specialist that cleaned my room,
he's one of our community hires.
It was great to see him in action.
Everyone made such a huge difference
for me while I was in the hospital.
I was in the hospital for 11 days.
I spent my 40th birthday in the hospital.
It was very disappointing to me
to not only be in the hospital,
but just dealing with
what I was dealing with.
It was very hard to tell her
that she was going to to have to stay
in the hospital for her birthday.
She'd handled it with grace,
but I know that that really was hard for her.
I texted my husband like,
"Please can you find a healthy cupcake?"
And I got home and he was like,
"There's no such thing as healthy cupcakes."
Which, he's got a point,
but he did make sure that he tried.
I was so happy that Dr. Goetz got her husband
to get me that cupcake.
She was very thoughtful of me on my birthday.
There was music therapy while I was in the hospital.
That was very impactful for me.
I'm a songbird.
She sang happy birthday to me.
It really touched my heart.
A lot of times we just want to be considered.
We want someone to celebrate us.
And that showed me
she's not only a medical professional,
but looking to go that, you know,
excellence is just the beginning.
It was a real, a real joy to take care
of someone who works for the institution,
especially since she does work that is so important
to our mission and to, our service to our community.
Having said that, I would have taken care
of all my patients in the same way.
I know where I contracted the COVID at.
I'm not happy to say, but this is a realization
that everyone needs to realize.
I had gone to a friend's
40th birthday celebration.
Isn't that ironic?
We were outside,
we did have on mask, at first,
but as the night went on, everyone got a little lax,
and we figured hey, we're outside.
I remember taking a picture
with some friends, and
maybe four days later,
I had every symptom of COVID, except for vomiting.
Loss of smell, loss of taste, body aches, all of that.
The recent COVID infection, plus confining to your home,
maybe not getting out and exercising maybe
because it's cold or, or just you know,
maybe you're still having some shortness
of breath from COVID.
This is unfortunately when blood clots can form.
So we're seeing a lot of people with and
without COVID developing blood clots
because they're just not getting around
and getting enough activity.
She's doing great.
She is always such a positive person.
And she has such a great attitude,
doing some testing to see about,
what's the status of the heart and lung function now.
We may consider a low dose
of a blood thinner just for
for a few more months, followed by rehabilitation
as an outpatient, exercise, therapy, things like that.
And then ultimately, you know,
should go on to live a normal, healthy life.
I'm glad that she came in when she did
and I'm glad that our hospital and our
our teams here are equipped to deal with
the latest and greatest technology,
and getting our patients the
the best outcomes possible.
I have two extended family members,
two women, that went to sleep,
and they passed away from blood clots.
And I was going home, to go to sleep.
And Miss Audrey called me, she's my angel.
We can't just pass each other by without, you know,
sometimes really taking a good look
at your colleague, or listening
to your colleague.
And taking a step further
to show some care and encouragement.
You just need the basics to just make it right.
And just the support.
And that goes a long way.