JENNIE: How Piedmont Augusta Foundation supports patients, including a grateful stroke patient who is also a nurse at the hospital

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) — When it comes to stroke, it’s important to remember the acronym FAST:
F ace drooping
A rm weakness
S peech difficulty
T ime to call for help!

It had to be a frightening experience: an interventional radiology nurse at Piedmont Augusta was having an outpatient procedure when she suddenly couldn’t speak. But she was in the right place at the right time. That radiology nurse, Kenisha Sullivan, is with me today, along with Piedmont Augusta stroke program manager Kachiri Jackson.

JENNIE: Kenisha, I want you to just tell us the story, ok? You already work at the hospital.

Kenisha Sullivan: “Yes, I am actually the charge nurse in our interventional radiology area, which does the stroke procedures. But I came in for a breast surgery and I had it before I knew the routine, what we were going to do. I had had the surgery. I was in recovery. And I had my friend with me and she asked, ‘How are you doing?’ I said, ‘I feel kind of queasy.’ So she called the nursing home. And when the nurse walked in I went to tell her I’m feeling nauseous and nothing came out. It was just garbled. And my friend with me thought I was actually joking. But then she saw the fear in my eyes and I couldn’t speak. And so from there they ended up calling the anesthesiologist in and he said, ‘Let’s send her to the ER.” They called a what we call a rapid response. So everyone responded. They took me to the ER. Kachiri came in, and these are all my coworkers and friends. So they’re standing around and I couldn’t speak. I could hear and understand everything they were saying, but I just couldn’t respond back to what they were saying. So I was getting upset and frustrated because I couldn’t speak. And they began to tell me, you know, we need to do something. We are thinking we’re going to give you TNK, which is a clot busting medicine. I had had scans taking me for CT scans, and so I in my nurse mind, I’m thinking all of the risk and benefits. What do I do? And so I began writing notes, asking, What would you do?”

JENNIE: So, you could write? You just couldn’t speak.

Kenisha Sullivan: “Correct. I could write and I could — like I said, I can understand everything people were saying, but I just couldn’t make sense to you when I responded. So once they told me they want do TNK, I was worried because I just had surgery. I knew I had a risk for bleeding. So I eventually just said yes because at that point I had to do we had to do something because I couldn’t speak. They gave me the medicine. From the time of onset of symptoms to the resolution was a total of 26 minutes.”

JENNIE: Amazing!

Kenisha Sullivan: “It was very quick. I’m very thankful that I was there at the hospital. I could have been at home, could have been anywhere else. And just to be there and just have access to everything very quickly, I think was one of the reasons that I had success with it.”

JENNIE: Kachiri, this is an important story to share because you see a lot of different outcomes with stroke, I guess. Tell me, tell me what you do with the comprehensive stroke program.

Kachiri Jackson: “So I got a call heads up about a rapid response that was more than likely going to be a code stroke once they arrived to the E.R.. So what I did was I actually was standing in the room waiting for Kenisha. Did a quick exam. And, you know, it is different when it’s one of your own. It all happened very fast. Very fast. You’re getting a lot of information. We’re asking a ton of questions. There are a ton of people in the room because there are a lot of things that you have to do in a timely manner. So at that point, she said, yes, she wanted to do it. So before administering this clot buster medication, there’s a lot of things — There is a checklist you have to do with blood pressure, making sure they’re not on blood thinners, making sure the last time they were seeing normal was within the appropriate time frame. All those things. So it was check, check, check. We were good. She said yes and we gave it and we were literally outside of the room having a conversation and all I heard was like a scream. And they say, “She can talk again.” So that was the best feeling ever. Just knowing that you helped save the life.

JENNIE: Now, the stroke technology is amazing and thrombectomy is one of the miraculous things, isn’t it?

Kachiri Jackson: “It is. So just to kind of explain what a thrombectomy is. So not every patient, but quite a few patients, about 30 to 40% of patients that have an acute ischemic stroke have what we call a large vessel occlusion. So a large vessel occlusion is just exactly what it says. It’s a clot or an occlusion in a larger vessel in your brain. Right? So if it’s more retrievable, the interventionist can go in and actually retrieve that. Okay. Luckily with Kenisha, she didn’t have that because her deficits would have been more severe.”

JENNIE: It’s like a little net, right? And they kind of pull it out?

Kachiri Jackson: “Yes. So they go through the groin and it’s a catheter that goes all the way up to the brain. They’re able to pull it out. And honestly, Kenisha is a charge nurse for that area, so it’s a very minor procedure, honestly. But the difference you can make in a person’s life. And the clots are very tiny. And you’re just amazed at how tiny clot can just have so much impact on a patient. So they’re very — they’re very tiny.”

And we’re going to continue talking a little bit more about the stroke program at Piedmont Augusta and learn a little bit more about the foundation there. Laney Mize is Piedmont Augusta Foundation ‘s gift officer. The Jernigan Memorial golf tournament is coming up May 6th and it traditionally has raised money for programs identified by the hospitals.

Laney Mize: “That is correct. In the past, we’ve done NICU, draft beds. We’ve done the Heart Vascular Center, just different ones that the hospital has identified that we needed. And this time, it’s the comprehensive stroke program.

JENNIE: The stroke program can make such a difference in people’s lives.

Laney Mize: “Yes. Because somebody has been touched by stroke. Everybody know somebody that’s been touched by stroke. Harry Jernigan was the founder and past president of Piedmont Augusta Foundation. And his legacy lives on through the Jernigan Golf Tournament. It’s pretty neat. His grandson still plays in the tournament today.”

JENNIE: Can you tell us what the purpose of Augusta Piedmont Foundation is?

Laney Mize: “It serves as a philanthropic arm of Piedmont Augusta and Piedmont McDuffie. And because of our wonderful donors, were able to provide the latest in health care. And also to like patients like Kenisha Sullivan, we were able to help her because of the latest stroke care, and that’s because of the funds that we raise and that we keep local to our hospital.”

JENNIE: You know, we talk about raising money for Piedmont August Foundation. The other big way we do that is through Miracle Mile. So money that we raise like this in our community, it stays in our community.

Laney Mize: “Yes, it stays local to Piedmont Augusta and Piedmont McDuffie as well. If they’re undergoing treatments and need help financially, we can do that as well. Yeah, it’s just a great thing to have.”

JENNIE: What do you see working at the foundation that other people might not realize about Piedmont Augusta?

Laney Mize: “Well, I come from a non-medical background. I’ve learned a lot about medical stuff and just how much the foundation has an impact on all the lives in our community and how much we do help others, such as patients, employees who are undergoing hard times. We can provide assistance to them, patients who are undergoing treatments and don’t have enough money. We can help cover those costs, things like that. It does a lot more than I ever thought it did.”

JENNIE: Don’t you also support nursing?

Laney Mize: “We do. We also have a nursing scholarship partnership with Augusta Tech. And we do now. I think it’s about 37 nurse scholarships that we have that are now supposed to come on board and work at our hospital.”

JENNIE: So you’re helping them to get the training to become a nurse. And in exchange for that, then they are working at the hospital once they get their degree. And that is so important because we are in a real nursing crisis in our country.

Piedmont Augusta Foundation will be hosting the 38th Jernigan Golf Tournament on May 6th at Woodside Plantation in Aiken to raise funds for Piedmont Augusta Stroke Program. Registration and Practice Tee opens at 9AM. Lunch is at 10:15 and the Shotgun Start is at 11AM.

To register, go to give.piedmont.org/jernigan.

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