INSPIRING EXCELLENCE IN IMAGING AWARD
This year for Ultrasound Awareness Month, we asked you all to recognize yourself or a fellow sonographer or physician by submitting a story about a time you saved a day or made a difference. Here at CardioServ, we believe that each and every sonographer is a hero in their own way and we want to share your stories! Whether it was catching a misdiagnosis, alerting an interventional team to take action, assisting a patient or physician. We received a lot of great submissions and with the help of our guest judges Dr. Ronald Wharton, cardiologist and Director of Cardiovascular Services at Montefiore Medical Center and Nicole Horve, RDCS, an advanced sonographer and council member at ARDMS, we have chosen the top 3 stories to share with you!
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR FIRST PLACE WINNER MEENARANI S!
Meena received her Graduate diploma in Cardiac Ultrasound in 2010 and Fellowship in Echocardiography from Indian Academy of Echocardiography. She currently works as the Senior Clinical and Cardiac Research Sonographer at Monash Medical Center in Melbourne, Australia. Meena is involved in multi-centered research trials conducted by Core Lab as well as presenting on-going research at conferences. She also is the department supervisor and lead educator for the clinical sonography students.
Meena choose a career in cardiac sonography after being introduced to the field by one of her healthcare role models. Being able to scan and diagnose patients provides her with a rewarding and gratifying experience everyday. Three words to describe Meena are sincere, hardworking and holding true to the core values of Monash Healthcare – integrity, compassion, accountability, respect and excellence.
Here is Meena’s Inspiring Excellence Story:
“A middle aged male was admitted to the coronary care department with chest pain and on examination the registrar heard a loud murmur. They requested an echocardiogram to rule out mitral regurgitation. The patient was a smoker and hence it was a technically challenging study. While performing the test, I could only identify mild mitral regurgitation, which will not present the loud murmur being heard upon examination. I felt the need to search more and find the cause of the murmur. Eventually, I found it! The murmur was caused by an unusual site of a ventricular septal rupture followed by inferior myocardial infarction.
I informed the treating cardiologist who was doing rounds at that time. Patient underwent an emergency angiogram followed by surgery and was sent home healthy. I felt incredibly rewarding and gratified.”
She would like to dedicate this award to to her patron Dr. K.M. Cherian renowned cardiothoracic surgeon in India, who introduced her into this health care profession.
SECOND PLACE WINNER: CYNTHIA VALENZUELA, RVT, RVS, RCS
Cynthia is the Technical Director and owner of Cardiovascular Ultrasound Specialists in Las Cruces, NM. She has over 37 years of experience in cardiac and vascular imaging. She loves helping patients achieve a diagnosis and helping students to enter into a very rewarding career!
Here is Cynthia’s Inspiring Excellence Story:
“A patient came into our office on a Monday by the referral of a physician who stated that her patient was seen in the emergency room the Saturday prior with severe right arm pain. The patient stated that the hospital had ordered an ultrasound to look for DVT. They stated to her the test was negative and sent her home. The pain continued to worsen. By Monday the patient went to see her primary care doctor who called me to recheck her patient’s arm because the pain had worsened. I imaged her arm and found that she had occluded the entire arterial system of the RT arm. She was immediately sent to a vascular surgeon who help restore flow to the patients arterial system.”
THIRD PLACE WINNER: DR. ANKUSH SACHDEVA
Dr. Ankush Sachdeva is a non-invasive cardiologist with extensive experience in his field with over 40 publications both nationally and internationally throughout India, Africa and the United States. He currently works at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute in Okhla, New Delhi, India as an associate cardiology consultant. He enjoys his work because of the diversity and solving of diagnostic pathologies using different echo techniques.
Here is Dr. Sachdeva’s Inspiring Excellence Story:
“A young lady with history of long standing unexplained dyspnea was referred to me for a review echo .The previous echocardiogram was reported to be normal. I was able to catch a loculated pericardial effusion in front of right atrium in subcostal view and calcium deposits along the AV groove with some early features of chronic constrictive pericarditis. This was further confirmed with a CT scan. Thanks to my good catch we were able to clinch the diagnosis.”
SPECIAL THANKS
We would like to give a special thanks to our guest judges Dr. Ronald Wharton and Nicole Horve, RDCS. Thank everyone who submitted their inspiring excellence stories! Lastly, we want to thank each and every sonographer and physician who provides quality and patient centered imaging everyday! It is because of your dedication to the field that we are able to make a difference in our patients lives.
