In our Emergency Department, we typically see children; most are treated and discharged without the need for admission to our sister facility. On this particular night, we received a 4-week-old baby. The baby was then evaluated by the physician, sent for a chest x-ray, treated, and discharged. About an hour later, the doctor received a call from the radiologist with the official read stating there was indeed a small subtle pneumonia on the chest x-ray. The doctor alerted (the charge nurse) Laura Schmidley and asked if she could call the patient, back to the emergency department with plans to admit him.

Armed with only the baby's name, DOB and social security number she began her investigation. Refusing to be stopped by this obstacle, Laura knew she had to reach this mom and more importantly get this baby back to the hospital. Laura then decided she would see if the mom had been here before, she discovered that she had been admitted to the maternity floor the day before the child was born. Laura was able to get the phone number and address from that record. She immediately called the phone numbers but there was no answer.

Desperate to reach this mother and refusing to give up she reached out to the police asking them to go to the address she found to see if this was indeed the mother of this baby. About an hour later the police called back and said they made contact with the mother and she was returning with her baby to the hospital. Laura's work had paid off and she did indeed find them. The baby returned about an hour later, treatment was successfully started and the baby was admitted and transferred to St. Chris where he continued treatment and is recovering well!