To the Cooper Team I just want to say again thank you very much for having such wonderful people on your team.
Dr. Elfar Muhammad than you for coming in, in the middle of the night at 1 am just to stitch my fingers back together again. Thanks for helping me thru it and making me laugh. You are one of the kindness, amiable Doctors Ive ever meet who work in the ER. Some doctors can be very unsocial able and always in a rush to leave but you Dr. Muhammad were the complete opposite. You took your time and was very friendly. thank you for everything.
Nurse Tiffany Broaddus – thank you so so so much for being so kind and understanding to me at 1am in the morning. If you were tired we couldn’t tell. lol. You are truly a special person, you helped me get thru what i consider one of the worst days of my life. Just by showing sympathy and compassion as well as listening to cry about my hand. Thanks for listening and caring. PS – I hope you win the Daisy award, you truly deserve it.
Dr. Nicole Jarette – THANK YOU for changing my life. You are simply the best the Surgeon ever. You were with me thru the entire process from start to finish. Not one time did seem annoyed by my craziness, irritated or unwilling. You were super happy every time I saw you which made me happier, you very thorough and I must say the coolest Doctor ever. Thank you for also helping me get thru the worst day of my life. I cant say thank you enough to express how grateful I was to have you as my surgeon.
I want to apologies for the LONG email. I tried to give it some humor so you wouldn’t be so bored reading it.
Here is my story:
On May 31, 2018 I had a major freak accident.
At approximately 7pm I accidentally cut the tips of my left middle finger and my left ring finger off exposing the bone, with my immersion blender. (How this happened I still can’t believe it myself. If you want to know the whole story I will be more than happy to explain it in person. lol.) How I ended up at Cooper is the real the story. When I cut my fingers off my first instinct was to go to Virtua in Berlin since its only 5 minutes away. Nonetheless, I regretted going to Virtua once I got there. Everyone was very nice, however once they took a look at my hand it was as if I had two heads. They all had this confused grossed out looks on there faces, as if this was the worst thing they ever saw. Which made me feel worse about my hand, extremely uncomfortable and hopeless. Not a good feeling at all. Since I Know this is not the worst thing the ER has ever seen.
Moreover…
To make a very long story short, after the ER examined my hand, took some Xrays, wrapped it up into a boxing glove, gave me antibiotics and pain medicine. They sent me home, with directions on what to do in the morning to schedule surgery. Im thinking to myself, my finger looks like I just put it thru a chopping machine and my bones are in pieces and the doctor wants to send me home. I thought that was the craziest thing Ive ever heard. Not to mention, at this point I wasn’t running on adrenaline anymore and started to feel some pain.
Anyways…
My husband at the time was speaking to his Chief of Police (my husband is a police officer for Waterford) and the Chief advised him to take me to Cooper because they have the best trauma team. When my husband told me that, I said “what are you crazy Im not driving all the way down there, thats like 45 min away!” “Plus Im sure the ER is packed!” My husband ignored me and said “I dont care, Chief said to take you there because they have the best trauma team, so thats’ were we are going” “plus Im driving and your not”. With a whatever look on my face, I said ok. I mean lets be real here, I really didn’t have a choice since he was the driving. lol
Furthermore……
45 minutes later we finally arrive to the ER at Cooper in Camden. I looked around and there wasn’t that many people there so I was relieved. Once we checked in the front desk person said,”I’m very sorry for what happened to you we will be with you shortly, if there is anything else I can do for you please let me know”. I looked at my husband and said “wow he was very nice”. We go sit down and literally two second later my name is called, and right away I was taken to my room.
Tiffany (the best nurse ever) comes in so bright and cheery at 1am in the morning introduced herself, asked me some questions and once again I explained what I did. She then asked if i could take off my gauge so she can take a look at my hand. I said to her “I can’t look, I don’t want to look at my hand, can you please do it”. She said with a smile on her face “yes. I was so scared to see all the damage I did, I didnt have the guts to take the wrapping off myself. Tiffany. right away knew what to do and say in a situation like this. She was super nice, very attentive, sympathetic and very astute. Not one time did she have that gross look on her face or seemed as if she was confused or scared, like my last hospital encounter. This made me feel comfortable and calm, I knew right away I was in good hands. She joked around and made us laugh and just made me feel better about my whole night.
Then I meet Doctor Muhammad, who is super calm, mellow and patient friendly guy. He stitched me up and we had a few laughs.
Later that day I met with Dr. Jarrett. What was so special about Dr. Jarrett is how she dealt with my shenanigans. Not one time did Dr. Jarrett make me feel as if I was being absurd with my request, made me feel uncomfortable or witless? She understood what I was going thru and was very careful with my feelings since she knew how sensitive this was. I say that because I HAD to see Dr. Jarrett twice a week for several weeks during my recovery process, to check the healing process but mainly to change my gauge since I couldn’t change the gauge myself, in fear that I would see my hand. In addition to I didn’t want anyone else look at my hand. I was unable to talk about what I did and got very upset every time someone else talked about my accident in fear of being judged or talked about. The only time I ever felt comfortable was when I saw Dr. Jarrett. Dr. Jarrett knew how important it was for me to have all my fingers attached and moving, weather it was for my profession or EGO, that she made it just as important to her. She truly went above and beyond for me,that she exceed my expectations. There were moments that I thought my fingers where not going to make it and Dr. Jarrett was there to comfort me the entire time. I literally asked Dr. Jarrett every visit “do you think I will be able to get my nails done again”, with confidence she said “ABSOLUTELY”. The minute I meet Dr. Jarrett, I felt comfortable and at ease and had no doubt that I was in great hands. Although I did not look at my fingers at all, during all of the weekly doctor visits and after the surgery’s I just knew that Dr. Jarrett was going to do everything she could. Today my fingers look GREAT and moving just fine, I am absolutely happy with the end results. Thanks to Dr. Jarrett, I am no longer ashamed to show off my hand and able to talk about my experience.
I can’t thank Dr. Jarrett enough for all she has done for me. Thank you very much Dr. Jarrett, you are truly an Angel and the best surgeon ever!!!. TODA!!!!!! MAZEL TOV!!!
COOPER HOSPITAL WILL ALWAYS BE MY NUMBER ONE CHOICE FOR HOSPITALS, THEY HAVE DOCTORS YOU CAN TRUST!!!
GET YOUR COOPER ON TO BE COOPER STRONG!!!!