back when google was great, my manager had to call a coworker's parents, who lived in Iran, and explain that their son had been badly injured in a parachute accident and was in the hospital, but that Google would be paying all his bills and we'd do the best to get him back on teh ground so he could eventually return to the office. (said employee left right after to be a VP at a bank. I thought that was a jerk move).