Tayler Gailey, who works at the Wound & Hyperbaric Center in Logan, was worried about a patient who missed an appointment.
Tayler is also a shared leader and educator who works in the Wound & Hyperbaric Center at Logan Regional Hospital. She set up one patient with a wound vac on a Saturday at the hospital and taught him what he needed to do at home until his next appointment on Monday morning. A wound vac is a device that speeds the healing of wounds. The patient had some questions and called her on Saturday and Sunday, she says, which is unusual, so she says she was worried about him.
She was off on Monday, but she told her team about the patient and when he missed his appointment, they tried to call him but couldn’t get through. Tayler says she called him on Tuesday but he didn’t pick up for her either. She decided to call the police and ask them to check on him.
“I told them I had some concerns about this patient who didn't show up to his appointment,” she says. “Usually we don't ask police to check on a patient who’s just missed one appointment, but with him I was worried his wound might have become infected. The police checked and got back to me within an hour and a half and said they found him unresponsive.”
“They found him unconscious on the floor of his home and called an ambulance,” says Cynthia Carman, Tayler’s manager. “If she hadn’t made that call, he probably would’ve died.”
The problems he had that made him unresponsive weren’t related to his wound but were serious enough that he was eventually transported to McKay-Dee Hospital where he’s now recovering, Tayler says.
“I was very grateful they were able to locate him and he was able to get medical attention to take care of his needs,” she says.