Heather Fledderman
December 2023
Heather
Fledderman
,
RN
Emergency Department
Indiana University Health Arnett Hospital
Lafayette
,
IN
United States

 

 

 

Heather went out of her way to provide supportive family-centered care to this patient and family.
When I arrived at work this morning, I saw from the ER discharge list that there was an unresponsive 7 week old that was in the ER last night. Knowing that Heather had worked last night, I asked Heather about the situation to learn more, as a member of the Child Life team, we are heavily involved in end of life cases and provided follow-up resources and support to these families, and want to determine if that was the case with this patient. Heather told me that this patient was transferred via helicopter to our main pediatric hospital over an hour away and that the family had made the comment that “money was tight, and it was going to be difficult for them to get there”. Heather gave her own money to this family to be able to have enough gas to get down to the pediatric hospital, which is very generous and thoughtful. I wanted to recognize Heather for going out of her way to provide compassionate care to this whole family. Because of her, this family was able to drive to Riley to be with their child, which they may not have been able to do before. She went out of her way to provide supportive family-centered care to this patient and family.