KK: I can’t imagine what you went through. Can you tell us what they did to care for you?

JR: I was laying there, they started IVs, and they gave me some pain meds. Eventually, they did put a chest tube in. I remember them writing on my bed sheets, I guess my vitals or something, because I remember they threw them out and then they were frantically looking for them. The nurses and the doctors were so great, and there was one nurse in particular that really kept coming back to check on me and would just stand by my bed and talk to me, really putting me at ease throughout the night.

KK: Jeannine, I have to ask you, having put in a bunch of chest tubes, is it as bad as it seems? Emergency physicians like to do procedures, but that has always been something that I’ve never wanted to go through personally.

JR: It was so painful! It was awful! Even for the first 10 minutes after it went in I was like, “Something’s wrong! This isn’t right!” But they said, “No, no, it’s fine.”

KK: What were some of the most comforting things that somebody said or did for you that got you through the night?

JR: This one nurse, [Kathleen Millhiser], who I don’t think actually worked at Sunrise, was talking to me about her daughter. She was around my mom’s age and was talking about her daughter, who was around my age, and it was just nice to have that comfort with someone that I felt was there for me. Just that moment of peace of talking to her, because it was so frantic, put me a little bit at ease.

KK: Scott, any comments that you have in listening to Jeannine and her experiences?

SS: Pretty emotional, I think. You know, that night a lot of bravery from not only the patients but the doctors and nurses and staff was displayed. For Jeannine to have to wait in order to be cared for and for us to understand how scared these folks were is important. Also, to realize that there were so many times that we were taking care of patients and they would say, “I’m fine, go to somebody sicker,” “I’m fine, go to somebody sicker,” that allowed us to focus on the most unstable patients. It’s just moving to hear somebody from the other side of the stethoscope; it was pretty impactful for me.