Nurse Wendy Moeller helps patients and families in their most critical time of need
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Meet more of Charlotte’s health care heroes
We’re sharing the stories of health care heroes in the Charlotte area who are helping to make a dent in the fight against COVID-19 — while making a difference in the lives of patients and their families.
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Wendy Moeller quickly stepped in to fill a gap when the coronavirus restricted visits by loved ones to critically ill patients at Atrium Health’s Carolinas Medical Center.
Moeller has been a registered nurse in Atrium’s surgical-trauma intensive care unit for 18 years.
She is filling the gap by spending a lot of her time talking over the phone with families about their loved ones, whether to try to console them or to report a positive update, Atrium officials said.
Moeller filled another gap, too, by spending extra time with patients who now face long hours isolated from their families. She talks with them, holds their hands and offers an encouraging word.
Moeller said patients’ attending doctors and other acute care practitioners also contact family members with updates from their daily rounds. Last week, she and other health care workers in the unit received iPads to communicate with families via FaceTime. “They also call us for information,” she said.
“Not having our family members present has hit me especially hard during this crisis,” Moeller said, referring to family members of patients. “And for them not to be able to see their loved ones, that takes a toll on you and it hurts your heart tremendously.”
One day in mid-April, care was being withdrawn for a terminally ill patient while another patient took a turn for the worse.
She was on the phone with one of their family members who suddenly erupted in grief.
“To have one family member screaming, crying in the phone that they couldn’t be there and was so scared they may never get to hear their voice again really impacted me, when you try to give them as much reassurance as you can that you’re working hard to save their loved one,” Moeller said. “I actually left that day defeated. I pretty much lost it when I got to my car.”
Yet being there for those in the most distress is vital to the role she’s served for so many years, she knows.
“I actually love what I do,” Moeller said.
Besides working with her teammates, doctors and Atrium leadership, “just truly being there for a family member, and a patient that can’t talk in a tragic, life- changing situation, and knowing I can try to impact them through education, compassion and kindness is truly the biggest reward for me.”
