Duke University Hospital leaders have presented the Strength, Hope & Caring Team Award for August 2011 to Jeffrey Clarke, MD, first-year fellow in Hematology-Oncology, Gowthami M. Arepally, MD, associate professor of medicine (Hematology) and Laura De Castro, MD, associate professor of medicine (Hematology).
The three were nominated by Peter Smith, MD, professor & chief of surgery (Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery).
[toggle title_open="Close" title_closed="Read Dr. Smith's nomination essay" hide="yes" border="yes" style="default" excerpt_length="0" read_more_text="Read More" read_less_text="Read Less" include_excerpt_html="no"]Sometimes, we as clinicians get wrapped up in the ennui of the same thing happening repeatedly despite all effort to change, and I would like to describe how, at least for me, I am revitalized.
Yesterday, I saw a patient with a 99% ostial LAD lesion not amenable to PCI.
(No, that’s not what I am going to talk about). She also had a history of HIT which we discovered at about 3:00 p.m., which I assumed would make surgery the next morning (today) impossible. This because we would need a Hematology consult and two lab tests which if negative would allow us to proceed with the preferred anticoagulation approach to CABG. If positive for anti-PF4 antibody, we would certainly have to pursue a different strategy which would be very difficult to get together overnight.
Since these lab tests are not ordinarily run every day, and certainly not at night, we asked for a Hematology consult, and I canceled the case “knowing” that at best we would know the answers sometime Friday and probably in the afternoon. Enter Jeffrey Clarke (Medicine house staff) and Laura De Castro, associate professor of medicine. who together with the help of Dr. Gowthami M. Arepally performed the consult and managed to get the laboratory testing done so that, by 9:30 p.m., we were good to go. These three individuals saw the problem, took the initiative and got the job done, and ultimately gave this patient service that could not have been done at any other institution.
Back on the OR schedule for today, and now done.
When Duke works at its best, it is the best. Sometimes, even I need to remind myself of this.[/toggle]
[caption id="attachment_2485" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="from left, Sabrina Olsen, Jeffrey Clarke, Mary Ann Fuchs, Gow Arepally, Marilyn Telen (accepting for Laura De Castro) and Deborah Page"]
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