Jamie Turlington spotted an elderly couple in trouble and went off searching for their car even though it was 106 degrees outside.
When a sympathetic caregiver from another area offered to go get lunch for an unusually busy Intensive Care Unit at St. George Regional Hospital recently they’d no idea she’d end up walking back and forth in 106-degree temperatures in the parking lot for more than 30 minutes before she would even leave.
Jamie Turlington had worked as the ICU admin for seven years before she took a new position as the executive admin for Natalie Ashby, the nursing administrator for the hospital. Jamie wanted to help out her friends from the unit so she set out to pick up some food for them. On the way out she saw an elderly man, who was on oxygen and in a wheelchair, trying to stand and she could see the struggle to get to his feet wasn’t going well.
“I stopped and said, ‘Do you need some help getting out of your wheelchair? Where are you trying to go?’ and he said, ‘I'm trying to get to my wife.’ She was sitting on a bench, probably about 10 feet away from him.”
Mike Wood, who leads the ICU, says that Jamie is proactive and helps people in need.
Jamie says his wife was looking confused and said she couldn’t find her keys. She thought she’d left them at home. Initially Jamie offered to go to their house to pick them up but eventually figured out the keys might be in their car because they had to have used them to drive to the hospital. She was worried about the couple, because they looked to be near 90 years old and she suspected the heat was taking its toll on them.
Jamie asked, “Where did you guys park? I’ll go see if they’re in your car.”
They tried to remember where they parked, told Jamie what kind of car they had, and Jamie went off in the heat searching car by car for more than 20 minutes, not knowing the car was actually parked on the other side of the hospital. The couple eventually remembered a valet on the other side of the hospital had parked the car and she found it. As she opened it and looked around inside and found a set of keys, she was worried that if it was the wrong car someone might not appreciate the misdirected invasive service she was offering the couple. She called the couple and described what she was seeing inside to make sure she was inside the right car.
When the woman saw the car “she looked at me and said, ‘Is that my car?’ I said, “I don’t know. You tell me. I hope this is your car.’ And the woman looked at the license plate and identified it as her car.”
Then the woman “grabbed me by my face and said, ‘Bless your face. Thank you so much. I’m so happy that you helped us.’”
“I was just glad I could help them out because I don’t know how long they would’ve been sitting there trying to figure out where their car was,” she says.
The impromptu baked service project meant the ICU crew’s lunch was delayed but when they found out why it was late arriving, Jamie says no one complained. They said it was nice of her to stop and help the couple.
Mark Evans, the chief operating officer for St. George Regional Hospital, says people are drawn to Jamie because of her friendly, outgoing nature.
“I knew the people I was delivering food to would understand I needed to stop and help that couple,” she says. “They were just appreciative to get the food. And getting food for the ICU staff, was the least I could do. They’ve been so overworked and just so busy in the hospital lately.”
Mike Wood, clinical operations director for the ICU, says Jamie knows how to spot someone in need.
“She’s proactive,” he says. “She looks for opportunities. She recognizes when people are in need and then she reacts.”
Mark Evans is the chief operating officer of St. George Regional Hospital and has also worked with Jamie and seen her interact with others.
“She’s just so kind, so warm-hearted,” he says. “She’s always thinking of other people. And she’s a personality that’s larger than life. People gravitate toward her because of her outgoing, friendly, gregarious nature. She’s a gem and a treasure and we’re really fortunate to have her.”