William D Fitzpatrick
August 2025
William D
Fitzpatrick
,
RN
Emergency Department
Kettering Health Hamilton
Hamilton
,
OH
United States
He integrated perfectly into our flight team dynamic, allowing us to accomplish 3 times what we would have been able to do with just the two of us.
In the 18 years I have worked in healthcare, I have never written a DAISY nomination before. But yesterday I saw the most incredible dedication and care for a patient from a Nurse that deserves the highest recognition. Yesterday, a young female was the unfortunate victim of a boating accident that resulted in her being trapped underwater for over an hour. She arrived at the hospital with CPR in progress with an estimated total down time of around 90 minutes.
The resuscitation team, which this RN was part of, was able to defibrillate the patient into ROSC, but her injuries and disease process were catastrophic and clearly not survivable. My flight team was activated to move this patient to a trauma center for possible ECMO, but on our arrival it was clear that his patient would not have long term survival and was not a candidate for ECMO.
The emergency department team and our flight team decided that our goal was just to get the patient to the trauma hospital where her family could be present to say goodbye. Stabilizing this patient was a heroic effort in itself. I have never had an emergency department nurse be so completely active in every role. He was playing the role of respiratory therapy, running the ventilator and suctioning. He was playing pharmacy, mixing meds so that we had push dose epi and vasopressor on hand. He was performing ECGs and titrating drips, leaving our teams hands available for other tasks. He integrated perfectly into our flight team dynamic, allowing us to accomplish 3 times what we would have been able to do with just the two of us.
With his help, we were able to get the patient just stable enough to load her in the helicopter. We ended up making it to the trauma hospital with the patient without losing pulses, and her family was able to come to her bedside before she passed. I think having family at bedside for a final goodbye, especially in a young person with an unexpected death, is critical to the grieving process, and in the long run will be critical to their strength going forward. I think a huge part of this is owed to William Fitzpatrick, the bedside nurse. His effort and work for this patient, knowing the outcome would be death, was above and beyond.
The resuscitation team, which this RN was part of, was able to defibrillate the patient into ROSC, but her injuries and disease process were catastrophic and clearly not survivable. My flight team was activated to move this patient to a trauma center for possible ECMO, but on our arrival it was clear that his patient would not have long term survival and was not a candidate for ECMO.
The emergency department team and our flight team decided that our goal was just to get the patient to the trauma hospital where her family could be present to say goodbye. Stabilizing this patient was a heroic effort in itself. I have never had an emergency department nurse be so completely active in every role. He was playing the role of respiratory therapy, running the ventilator and suctioning. He was playing pharmacy, mixing meds so that we had push dose epi and vasopressor on hand. He was performing ECGs and titrating drips, leaving our teams hands available for other tasks. He integrated perfectly into our flight team dynamic, allowing us to accomplish 3 times what we would have been able to do with just the two of us.
With his help, we were able to get the patient just stable enough to load her in the helicopter. We ended up making it to the trauma hospital with the patient without losing pulses, and her family was able to come to her bedside before she passed. I think having family at bedside for a final goodbye, especially in a young person with an unexpected death, is critical to the grieving process, and in the long run will be critical to their strength going forward. I think a huge part of this is owed to William Fitzpatrick, the bedside nurse. His effort and work for this patient, knowing the outcome would be death, was above and beyond.