糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock nursing students save man鈥檚 life
Two first-year nursing students at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock saved a man鈥檚 life Friday at a North Little Rock gym because they were able to quickly administer CPR and give other life-saving help in the crucial moments before paramedics arrived.聽Megan Crawley, 23, had gone to the North Little Rock Athletic Club on Friday, Jan. 11, to work out. She arrived at 10:45 a.m., just seconds after 67-year-old Charles Rainey collapsed. People were yelling for a doctor, and a man asked Crawley if she knew one in the building.鈥淚 said I was a nursing student, and a man told me, 鈥榊ou have to go! There鈥檚 no one else back there,鈥欌�� Crawley said.Crawley ran over to Rainey and couldn鈥檛 find his pulse. She saw that he was turning blue, checked his airway, and saw that his tongue was swollen and knew he wasn鈥檛 getting air. She began giving Rainey breaths, while Jessica McCrary, the general manager of the Athletic Club, started compressions.Ryan Ruff, another full-time 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock nursing student who works at the front desk of the athletic club, got an automated external defibrillator and charged it. He鈥檚 also a medic in the National Guard.鈥淲e put the pads on him and shocked him,鈥� Crawley said. 鈥淚t [the AED] told us to keep doing CPR, so I started doing compressions, and Ryan did breaths.鈥�Crawley鈥檚 boyfriend, Evan Gardner, who is a nursing student at Baptist Health, stood ready to take over when Crawley or Ruff became fatigued from the CPR. Crawley had administered 90 compressions when Rainey made a noise. She checked and found his pulse and then she and Ruff rolled him onto his left side to wait for medics. Rainey was awake and talking when medics arrived.鈥淚t was definitely shocking,鈥� Crawley said. 鈥淚鈥檓 so glad I did what I needed to do and glad I had the courage to do it, but afterward I couldn鈥檛 stop shaking.鈥�After the incident, Crawley and Gardner stayed at the gym to exercise, and a police officer returned to get a report.鈥淗e told us that the doctors said that had we not been there, he would have died,鈥� she said. She and Gardner visited Rainey at Baptist Health Medical Center-North Little Rock on Sunday, Jan. 13, and learned that Rainey had suffered sudden cardiac arrest in the gym.On Monday, Jan. 14, Rainey had three stents placed and said he expects to be released Monday afternoon.鈥淚 feel amazing right now,鈥� Rainey said from his hospital room.Rainey said he had decided to run the three-quarters of a mile from his home to the gym Friday morning, rather than drive, because his truck was being worked on. 鈥淚 felt slight angina during the run, but nothing I hadn鈥檛 felt before,鈥� he recalled. 鈥淎s I started to cool down, I felt a bit of dizziness. I walked in and was standing next to a pipe, and I started sliding down to the floor. I was flatlined when Megan attended me.鈥淪he鈥檚 a sweet girl,鈥� Rainey said of Crawley. 鈥淪he apparently was very efficient and jumped right on it, and Ryan had charged the AED. It worked out very well.鈥� Crawley credits 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock nursing instructor Joanna Rostad-Hall for preparing her for Friday鈥檚 emergency.鈥淪he was the one who taught my CPR class,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f it wasn鈥檛 for Mrs. Rostad-Hall and God, I don鈥檛 know what I would鈥檝e done.鈥�All of 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 nursing students are required to be Basic Life Support (BLS) certified to be in the nursing program. The 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Nursing Department offers certification and recertification courses several times a year. The certifications cover recognition of cardiac arrest, CPR, AEDs, ventilation, and choking for adults and infants, Rostad-Hall said.Crawley is in the Associate of Applied Science in Nursing program and plans to continue her education and get a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing. Ruff is in the Bachelor of Science nursing program. Needless to say, 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock nursing faculty are extremely proud of both Crawley and Ruff.鈥淲e truly do have some amazing future nurses in our program,鈥� Rostad-Hall said.
