Christine Frugard
August 2016
Christine
Frugard
,
RN
Pediatric ICU
Morristown Medical Center
Morristown
,
NJ
United States

 

 

 

Christine is an amazing nurse and a wonderful mentor. She goes above and beyond for her team and our patients and families. This incredible story says it all.
Christine was the nurse coordinator on and PICU was receiving a patient from Overlook ED. A very young girl had been pulled from the bottom of a swimming pool, never had lost pulses, but was now in the ED with oxygen saturations in the 40s and unable to bring the sats up. Christine was concerned that if the patient was transferred in those conditions, it was likely that she would die in the ambulance. That is when she contacted the director. The situation was critical and our team needed to act fast to help the ED.Christine drove from Morristown, bringing lines and other equipment and met our other attending there. Christine worked with them and they were able to bring the oxygen saturation to 100%, placed central lines, and started a drip to correct the hypotension. Christine then accompanied them back to the PICU at Morristown and stayed late into the night to help out until the patient was stable enough to be transferred to CHoP for ECMO evaluation.
Christine's commitment to patients and families is inspirational. She recognized what would have been a fatal situation and did everything she could and saved the patient.