Turning around to help save a life

After completing a 10-hour work shift, Bryce Anderson, charge nurse at UCHealth Highlands Ranch Hospital, left for the day. He was 10 minutes into his drive home when he received a call from the hospital.

His colleague relayed a serious message. There was an emergency with Anderson’s patient from earlier that day. She was about to code and an emergency procedure had to be performed. The on-call team was needed at the hospital as soon as possible.

Anderson, not on-call that evening, knew the urgency of the situation. Without hesitation, he made a U-turn, heading right back to the hospital.

“I turned around because I was the closest to the hospital,” Anderson said. “The rest of the call team was about 25-30 minutes away, so I knew I could get there quicker than everybody else.”

On Anderson’s drive back to the hospital, he made phone calls to alert the rest of the on-call team and his own family.

“It’s just part of the job,” Anderson said. “I took it upon myself, to help out the team.”

When Anderson arrived at the hospital, he took ownership of three roles until the on-call team arrived. He remained onsite for three hours.

“I stayed for the duration of the case, just to make sure everything went smoothly,” Anderson said.

Cindy Johnson, nurse manager, submitted a Celebrating You recognition for Anderson’s selfless actions that day.

“As providers have developed great trust in Bryce, they reach out to him first in emergencies. On 2/22, our cath patient began to show signs of tamponade. Dr. Nelluri reached out to Bryce to activate the team and with Bryce understanding how severe this is, he took it upon himself to turn around (he had already left the building, and he was not on-call) and return to the hospital to provide the best lifesaving care to this patient,” Johnson wrote in the recognition.

“He truly lives our values and mission statement and improves lives in large ways,” Johnson said. “This is why we are in health care. We are here for our patients.”