Real Heroes Don’t Wear Capes….

Real heroes don’t wear capes…or maybe they do?

Annamarie Strehlow is a former employee of WFA Staffing Group; she worked for us as an intern throughout her late high school and undergraduate years.  She is now in the ‘front line’ as a physical therapist at Froedtert Hospital, deployed to their ‘mobility team’ and we could not be prouder of the work she is doing.

Especially right now, but really always, it is worth a moment to celebrate those who move outside their comfort zone and own safety to lend aid to those who cannot survive without it.

From Anna’s blog following her journey…

“Our goal as the proning and mobility team is to prevent patients from being admitted into the ICU and current data shows that this is helping. Today, I saw it first hand; it gave me goosebumps. Most of the patients we saw were incredibly ill with multiple lines and tubes. A majority were non-verbal and very dependent. That being said, proning or “flipping” dead weight is pretty challenging, especially with lines and tubes. To make a long story short, we wrapped the patients up like a burrito. One sheet goes on top, and one sheet on the bottom. We slid the patient to the opposite direction we wanted to flip, rolled them to side lying, and then boom, prone! Within minutes of flipping our first two patients, their O2 sats went up (this was awesome ). The more a patient’s O2 sats go up, the more we can wean them from oxygen, the stronger they become, and the greater chance they can be discharged home. Some patients may stay in prone for as little as 40 minutes and others for 4 hours. The longer the better.”

 “I started to see flickers of light in this dark unknown. At one point, a nonagenarian was asking me to shoot her but within 24 hours of flipping and “unflipping,” her vitals were changing and she started requesting a T-bone steak. I knew after this request she had a little fire still burning inside. She’s a fighter.”

   “It was Wednesday, April 22nd. I gowned up and exclaimed, “Good Morning! It’s Annamarie from physical therapy. Are you ready to work”?  I found her sitting up in her chair.

She replied, “Hey baby. I knew it was you. I could hear the love in your voice. I have been waiting for you to come back.”…. I said, “E I am so proud of you, your numbers look really good right now.” She said, “Baby, I’m not worried, I know the Lord has me.” We spent the remaining time crying with each other, reminiscing over our journey together. She went home later that afternoon.”

Again, quoting Anna…

“Tomorrow is a new day. I hope to touch more lives and embrace the unknown.”    

A noble goal for us all, Anna….

Thank you from the bottom of OUR hearts.

Kristin Tetzke, Operations Manager WFA Staffing