6SE had a male patient who was going to be dismissed. His wife was coming from Plains, KS with his home O2 and was to leave the house around 0900. When she didn’t arrive in the early afternoon hours, the husband (pt) became worried and called her. The wife was confused, didn’t know where she was, and had garbled speech. It was a very hot day with temperatures over 100 degrees. Thinking she may have had car trouble, the patient called his brother. The patient's brother left from Liberal, KS following the route she would have taken, thinking she may have had car trouble with the extreme heat conditions.

During this time, his nurse alerted the charge nurse, Trina Williams, of the patient's concerns. Trina called the wife and was only able to hear mumbling and unable to give further information. Trina then called 911 who decided to notify KS Highway patrol to ask for help to locate the patient's wife. With Trina’s recent call to the wife, they were able to “ping” the call and they discovered the wife had never left her home that day. The husband was able to assist the KHP with accessing the home, where they found her suffering from a medical emergency.

The wife was life-flighted to St. Francis with a stroke alert where she was admitted to the Neuro Critical Care Unit. Trina trusted her instincts that something wasn’t right and pursued every avenue to help locate the patient’s wife. Her persistence and follow-through made all the difference with this patient's life. This situation could have gone a much different way if not for the actions of Trina.