Great Catch: Daughter, nurse advocate for patient heart procedure
Patricia Reyes, 76, needed a procedure done on her heart this summer. When she arrived at the hospital for treatment, her daughter Isabel Fernandez and the nurse, Melissa Tan, noticed additional symptoms since her previous appointment with the cardiologist, and they both advocated for further testing that may have saved her life.
In April, Isabel Fernandez noticed her mom was feeling more fatigued, had trouble sleeping and her blood pressure was elevated.
“She had some swelling on her legs and stomach. And she was constantly trying to catch her breath,” said Isabel. “I set up an appointment with her primary care physician, then her cardiologist. They wanted to run some tests.”
Patricia was scheduled for a right heart catheterization to rule out pulmonary hypertension. Patricia had a Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) done in 2005, and she had not had any catheterization follow-up since then. She was scheduled to go back to Methodist Hospital | Texsan in June for her right heart catheterization, but it was different this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There were limits on visitors and less contact with people,” said Isabel. “But that didn’t affect the care. Nothing was missed. I admire them for that.”
Isabel brought her mom to Texsan for the outpatient procedure. It was during the nurse’s intake assessment that she discovered the clinical presentation didn’t fully align with doing only a right heart catheterization.
“My assessment is more like an interview to make sure everything is in order,” said Melissa. “Based on her answers, I was very concerned with her frequent episodes of chest pain and frequent use of sublingual Nitroglycerin tabs. It had to be addressed.”
Before the procedure to do a right heart catheterization, Melissa Tan, RN, met with the physician to report the new symptoms and added medication that was different than previously reported. Melissa suggested they also do a left heart cath to determine if there were issues with her coronaries. The physician agreed, and he found a serious issue on one of her bypass grafts.
“Her angiogram showed 99 percent occlusion or blockage of the coronary artery,” said Gary Maszak, MD, Interventional Cardiology. “Without knowing the change in symptoms, we would not have known about the significant blockage on one of her major coronaries.”
The team performed coronary intervention and deployed stents successfully to restore brisk flow.
“It takes a team to care for our patients, and we have a great one here at Texsan,” said Dr. Maszak.
Melissa was recognized by her peers with the Great Catch award. The Texsan Professional Practice Council started the program to highlight staff who work to improve patient outcomes every day and encourage others to trust their own training.
Today, Patricia said she’s feeling a lot better.
“I don’t have shortness of breath and anxiety,” said Patricia. “Thank you to all the staff, nurses, technicians, and Dr. Maszak for finding the occlusions. And thank you to the nurse who advocated on my behalf. Texsan has amazing staff who care for their patients with compassion.”