Morgan Jones, PharmD, Mike Moore, RN, Nick Chambers, Jade WiIkie, RN, Bertha Pate, RN
During our stay in NCCU, we were blessed with having a great
medical team that made rounds together each morning to
determine the progress and care of each patient on the floor. One
member of this team quickly became a standout: Morgan Jones,
our neurocritical care pharmacist. From the beginning, Morgan
would return to Nick’s room after his rounds to speak with John
in detail about the medications and care recommendations from
the team. Morgan knew that John and I were scared, in shock, and
in need of answers and explanations. He went above and beyond
his duty, often dropping in before or after his shift to check on
us and to see if we had any questions. The neurologists would
come and go depending on their rotation schedules, but Morgan
was our one constant and always willing to help however he
could. Because Nick’s condition was so critical, he never gave us
false hope. He gave us information about Nick’s condition with
assurance that the team was doing everything they could, and
most importantly, his time and personal concern for Nick. Because
of his experience with his wife just a couple years before, he had
a special empathy with our situation making him much more
than just a medication expert. I cannot count how many times I
received texts from my husband during his shift at the hospital
that began, “Morgan just stopped by and …”
Miraculously, Nick improved enough to be discharged from the
NCCU and admitted to a long-term care facility within the same
hospital. After all the hours the team had spent conferencing
about the best care approach, they wanted to continue following
Nick there to be certain that there were no deviations that could
result in a recurrence of the infection and a worsening of his
symptoms, which thrilled John and I. He was not only on a
complicated antifungal regimen, but also on a combination of
drugs used to prevent extreme posturing in his limbs, particularly
his arms. Even though we were no longer residents of the NCCU,
Morgan would show up at our new room every day after a long
shift. As parents of a child who spent six weeks at death’s door, we
were truly grateful for his continuing presence and intervention
with the new staff on behalf of Nick. Even when Nick was
transferred to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, we continued our
correspondence with Morgan. His detailed explanations for each
medication change the new team was making helped to ease our
minds and facilitated trust in our new providers.
After seven months, Nick was well enough to return home.
Because of the damage to his basal ganglia, he still suffers deficits
that require rehab and medication. We continue to turn to Morgan
for advice on what particular specialist to see and what he thinks
about a medication option for a certain problem Nick is having. It
is truly incredible that he has stayed with us all this time and has
never once acted as though we are an intrusion on his time. As we
were collaborating on this article, he told me that his 1-year-old
had the flu. I thought to myself that the concern and fear he has
for his baby is the same concern and fear John and I had for our
baby even though he was 25 years old. Morgan was right there
with us the entire journey feeling our pain; such personalized
patient and family-centered care as he has shown us is the epitome
of a dedicated medical professional.
G. Morgan Jones, PharmD, BCPS, BCCCP, is a clinical pharmacy
specialist in the neurocritical care unit at Methodist University Hospital,
in Memphis, Tennessee. He is also an assistant professor of clinical pharmacy,
neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Tennessee Health
Sciences Center. He is an invited guest writer for Currents.
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