Vivian Abel: Atlanta Medical Center

By Laura Raines

For AJC Jobs

Vivian Abel, 53, is an intensive care nurse and unit coordinator at Atlanta Medical Center. Her husband thinks she also could be a detective.

Last September Abel treated a young woman who had been hit by a car while jogging and was knocked unconscious. She had undergone emergency brain surgery to save her life, but no one knew who she was because she didn’t have identification.

“I told my co-workers, ‘This baby belongs to somebody, I’m going to find her mama,’ ” Abel said. “It was really a team effort. Dr. Paul King, the neurosurgeon, suggested that we might get a name from the iPod she’d been wearing. Our social worker, Georgia Altin, called Apple and found out that the phone had been registered to Sarah Halperin.”

Using an Internet search site, Abel found 14 people by that name. She eventually found one in the right age range which, after further digging, led to the name of the woman’s deceased father and the phone number of her mother, Candace Kaller, who lived in Bethesda, Md.

“I didn’t get her on the first try, but I left a message asking her to call me if she had a daughter living in Atlanta,” Abel said.

Kaller called and immediately raced to her daughter’s side.

“I stayed until she got here, and she thanked me and thanked me, calling me her angel,” Abel said.

“Vivian went above and beyond to find Sarah’s family and she stayed involved until Sarah was well enough to move to rehab at the Shepherd Center,” wrote Susan Shoer, a family member of the patient. “We are so grateful to Vivian. She really exemplifies what it means to be a nurse.”

Abel was inspired to become a critical care nurse by her aunt (an ICU nurse in Chicago) and has worked in the field since 1981. Abel trains new nurses in all of the hospital’s intensive care units (neurological, open heart, trauma).

“I’m still at the bedside because I know it’s where I’m supposed to be,” she said. “There are still times when you cry, but this is my calling.”

Twice she’s had the joy of reuniting unknown patients with their families.

“I don’t have children, but I have nieces and nephews who live all over the country,” she said. “When I see an unknown patient, I can’t help but think of them. My mom instinct just kicks in.”