April 2019
Tara
Donnelly
,
BSN, RN, NE-BC
Outpatient Infusion
Overlook Medical Center
Summit
,
NJ
United States
A new patient came to the infusion room, she requested to see "a woman named Tara who works here". Her nurse went and retrieved our clinical coordinator Tara Donnelly. When the patient saw her, she said: "that's not her!" The patient went on to tell Tara that she had come in to Overlook for pre-admission testing. While being checked in by a girl named Tara her speech began to slur. Tara called a code purple for her. It turns out the patient had a brain aneurysm. She said Tara saved her life and never got a chance to say "thank-you". So Tara Donnelly set on a mission to find her. She went right to outpatient admissions. There was no one by the name Tara there and no one who worked there presently who remembered anyone with that name. They tried to help Tara look up people, but it was a dead end. She even showed the patient a picture of the person she did find, but it was not her. She then went back to admissions and asked the lab staff. Hooray! They remembered her! Just not where she had gone. Possibly radiology she was told she might find her there. She found her! Tara arranged for the other Tara to come to the infusion room and surprise our patient! And surprise her she did! Lots of hugs and tears of happiness and gratitude all around. All because Tara Donnelly went that extra mile.