At Fresenius Medical Care UK & Ireland, one of our core drivers is to provide high quality, safe and effective care that improves the quality of life for all our patients. Our mission statement is strong; to create a future worth living for patients, worldwide, every day and because of this, we put patients at the heart of everything we do, sometimes at the cost of personal sacrifices.
It is important for us to recognise and celebrate team members who have gone above and beyond to achieve our mission, and today we would like to share a story from one of our Therapy Specialist Nurses (TSN), Buddy-Joe Paris. Buddy recently demonstrated outstanding levels of commitment and dedication to one of our patients, which in turn gave the family precious final moments together.
This patient, under the care of the Queen Elizabeth Woolwich NHS Trust was diagnosed with multiple organ failure. Keeping the patient alive required continuous mechanical and pharmaceutical support; including blood pressure support, a ventilator, cardiac monitoring, and dozens of infusions, which had to be run at the same time. In addition to this, they required Therapeutic Plasma Exchange (TPE); which needed to be delivered five times a day. Unfortunately, the hospital didn’t have the machines or clinical protocols required to deliver the kind of plasma exchange required and the closest one identified was at another hospital six miles away. The team caring for the patient explored the option of transferring the patient to the Liver Intensive Care Unit at Kings College Hospital, but ultimately, the patient was too unstable to be moved.
Buddy-Joe recognised that more needed to be done to support the patient and stepped in above and beyond what is expected of him in his role of TSN to provide exceptional levels of care. First by securing a vital TPE machine from the Royal Free hospital and transporting it over to Woolwich, then by facilitating the patient’s treatment outside of his regular work hours. Other members of our Critical Care clinical team assisted too, by taking on some of Buddy-Joe’s other therapy sessions so he could dedicate himself to caring for this patient.
Supporting the patient required not just medical and technical knowledge, but also project management and admin skills. Buddy-Joe also took on overseeing a very detailed treatment schedule, managing workflow of nurses, ordering all the products and medications necessary to keep the therapy going, as well as liaising with the rest of the Fresenius Medical Care team to keep them up to speed with everything going on. All the while, the patient’s family had to be kept informed during what was undoubtedly a very emotionally challenging and stressful time.
Sadly, after a few days of treatment, the patient passed away. However, Buddy-Joe’s hard work kept them alive for a vital stretch of time during which the family could come and visit and be with them until the end, which would not have been possible without him. This is the difficult reality of working within the role of a Therapy Specialist Nurse, nevertheless, the behaviour, skills and competencies of our team of incredible TSN’s support the NHS to deliver patient centred care.
Thank you, Buddy-Joe, for your unwavering dedication to your role, putting your patients first and for continuously living the core values of Fresenius Medical Care.