Crystal Fuller
March 2015
Crystal
Fuller
,
RN
Emergency Department
MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center
Baltimore
,
MD
United States

 

 

 

Crystal had a patient come in in cardiac arrest, he was 53 years old. The only person who came to the hospital with the patient was a friend who appeared to be developmentally challenged. The patient subsequently passed away. The patient's friend told Crystal that the patient did not have any family in the area, but was supposed to fly to Texas the following weekend to visit his sister. Crystal did an exhaustive search on the internet (which included spending some of her own money on one of the people search websites), called the local Texas police, asked our local police to search the patient's home for information, and even called an attorney who she discovered had represented the patient on several traffic violations, but no information about the patient's family could be found. This did not stop Crystal. She said that she did not want the patient's sister to go to the airport that weekend and find out once he did not get off the plane that he had died several days prior. This prompted Crystal to try Southwest Airlines. After multiple lengthy holds and being transferred up the management ladder, Crystal was able to get the contact information of the sister and the Attending Physician was able to call her and notify her of her brother's untimely death. Crystal's valiant effort kept her well past her shift. Crystal said that she did not want to leave feeling like she had not done everything she could to find this family.