From Colleague to Patient

The event, as Rhonda Olmsted refers to it, happened last August. Two days earlier, she woke up dizzy and short of breath. The feeling passed, so she shrugged it off and went to work for a 12-hour shift. The next day, the same feeling hit. She felt better quickly and went to work for another long shift. Multiple colleagues later told Rhonda they didn’t notice anything off with her.  

What Rhonda didn’t realize was that she was about to have a severe pulmonary embolism, a condition that affects almost a million people in the United States every year. To save her life, Rhonda was transported to a place she holds dearly – Bryan Medical Center.

Moments of Distress 

Rhonda grew up in Beaver City, Nebraska, just 60 miles south of Lexington. She went to nursing school at Bryan School of Nursing and worked at Bryan for around eight years after graduation. She moved away for a few years before coming back to Nebraska in 2001. She joined the then-new Bryan Heart – technically as its very first employee – and remained part of the team ever since.

On the day of “the event,” Rhonda wasn’t working. She woke up feeling fine – not at all like the previous two days. It seemed like it would be a normal day off for her; she was planning to spend some time with her parents at their assisted living facility and run a few errands.

She pulled up in front of the facility, feeling terrible. She got out of her car and fainted for a few seconds. Amazingly, nobody saw her in distress. She woke up a few moments later, slowly stood up and got inside, where she went to the bathroom to try to collect herself. She felt fainter and fainter, and she knew then that she needed to get help.

She made it back outside to the lobby, where her dad was waiting for her. He could immediately tell something was wrong. He helped her down into a chair, where an on-site technician examined her. Rhonda’s blood pressure and heart rate were at dangerous levels, so the facility staff called 911.

The ambulance arrived, and EMTs gave Rhonda oxygen and IV fluids as they started the short drive to Bryan East Campus – Rhonda’s place of work.

Treated by Colleagues 

A few minutes later, Rhonda was rolled into the emergency department, into halls that she had traveled countless times before.

“I’m asking them what room we are going to, and they said Room 3,” she said. “I told them, ‘Well, you’re going the wrong way.’”

Ky Newell, MD, an emergency medicine physician, welcomed her on arrival and quickly evaluated her condition. After the ED team ruled out causes such as a heart attack, they proceeded with further testing, including a CT scan, which revealed she was having a massive pulmonary embolism. This occurs when a blood clot from the legs travels to the lungs and clogs an artery. Because this requires immediate treatment, the Pulmonary Embolus Response Team (PERT) was activated, bringing together several of her colleagues. Rajeev Anchan, MD was one of the cardiologists called in.

Rhonda and Dr. Anchan had worked together for four years. When Dr. Anchan started at Bryan, Rhonda was the person who showed him around the hospital. He said she always arrived to work with a McDonald’s coffee.

“You knew Rhonda was here that day if you saw that coffee,” he said

He said that almost every day, there were a handful of patients who Rhonda had seen over the years. She always remembered them and their families.

“She was a joy to work with,” he said. “She’s the one who would put her arm around you and give you a hug if you needed it. She could tell when anybody was having a busy or hard day and always felt like a calming presence.”

After Rhonda arrived in the ambulance, Dr. Anchan said multiple colleagues told him that “Rhonda’s got a pulmonary embolism.” At first, he didn’t realize that anything was unusual. To him, that phrase meant that Rhonda was seeing a patient with a pulmonary embolism, not that she was the patient herself.

He tried to get a hold of her to get a rundown on this phantom patient. It hit him that something was wrong when he got to the emergency room and multiple providers were standing outside the room.

Taking Action 

Dr. Anchan and the team went through the treatment options with Rhonda – options that she was very familiar with, having treated similar patients in the past. It was decided that Rhonda needed a thrombectomy, a procedure where a thin tube called a catheter is placed through the right side of the heart into the pulmonary arteries. Once in place, the catheter is used to suction out the clots to restore blood flow through the lungs.

“I knew everybody in the cath lab who was working on me,” she said. “I remember very clearly how fast they were working, because I was very unstable. The first clot they removed, I started feeling a lot better.”

Once she was stable, Rhonda was moved to the ICU. She was on oxygen for around a day, and her heart rate slowly came down. Her legs were scanned and it was revealed that they were full of other clots. Rhonda was surprised, because usually people with that many clots in their legs have swelling, redness and pain. She had none of that.

Remarkably, Rhonda had no pain during the entire experience. She was only in the hospital for two days. She was advised to take a week off work – a precaution she admits she didn’t feel she needed. She will remain on blood thinning medication for the rest of her life to lower the risk of future complications. At her three-month follow-up appointment, a repeat echocardiogram showed encouraging news: there was no evidence to suggest remaining blockage in her arteries.

While she was in the hospital, she received many visitors. Dr. Anchan said every time he would check on her, there were lots of people in the room providing support and little gifts.

“It’s so telling to the person Rhonda is,” he said. “It’s a testament to the fact that she’s cared for so many people.”

It was a surreal experience for Rhonda to be on the patient side of treatments she has been a part of for years.

“It was just so amazing, because I saw Bryan Health work perfectly for me as a patient,” she said.

Heading into Retirement 

Rhonda gets emotional as she reflects on everything that had to go right for her that day.

“I know if I hadn’t gone to see my parents that day, I would have died at home,” she said. “Everything just happened perfectly, from where I was to who treated me. Being treated by my people made me super proud to be a part of this team.”

She wrote to everybody on her team to thank them for her care. Her first text was to somebody who wasn’t even there that day. Isaac Meier, MD, a Bryan Heart cardiologist, developed the PERT team that saved Rhonda’s life.

Rhonda’s experience slightly sped up her retirement timeline. She had a small party in January where she celebrated her almost 45-year career with colleagues.

In her retirement, Rhonda is excited to have new experiences and spend more time with friends and family.

She continues to keep in touch with her former colleagues, including Dr. Anchan.

“I’m a very proud Bryan Health person,” she said.

Take Your Next Step

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To learn how you can support the work of Bryan Health, please contact the Bryan Foundation staff by calling 402-481-8605.