May 2019
Lucy
Chavez-Bloom
,
RN
ICU
San Antonio Regional Hospital
Upland
,
CA
United States

 

 

 

Approximately 4 months ago, ICU admitted an unfortunate young man who had suffered a cardiac arrest related to a swimming accident. The young man was sedated and being mechanically ventilated and had sustained an anoxic brain injury. He was in grave condition and his family was overwhelmed with grief. This young man had an older brother who was serving active duty in the armed forces and was deployed overseas.
Upon learning of the older brother's deployment, Lucy sprang into action. She collected pertinent information from the family and despite numerous obstacles and dead ends, she contacted Red Cross and arranged for the older brother to return home to see his ailing brother. The family was very grateful to Lucy for her extraordinary efforts. As always, Lucy left the grieving family with the impression that they were the most important people in this hospital and there was nothing that she would not do to ease their pain.