ABSTRACT
Paula Stanfill’s husband had open-heart surgery. Paula is the manager of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Franciscan St. Francis Health, a three-hospital system in Indianapolis, Indiana. In the recovery room, Paula’s husband could not speak because he was intubated with a breathing tube. He was trying to communicate by furrowing his eyebrows and squinting. He knew sign language and was motioning at his arm and trying to use his fingers to tell Paula something, but he could not make his hands do what he wanted them to do. Paula remembers her panic in realizing that something serious might be happening to her husband. He also began to panic, thinking the surgery had caused a serious problem with his arms. They were deeply distressed until the anesthesia wore off and he could speak again.
