Inside Duke Medicine

Duke Hospital nurse’s training helps save a life in an airport

Stephanie Girard, RN, BSN ,PCCN, a staff nurse on Unit 3300 at Duke University Hospital helped save a man's life last week while she was traveling through an airport in Boise, Idaho.

Stephanie says she arrived at the airport at 4:30 a.m. for her return flight to Raleigh-Durham. While waiting, a man sitting near her collapsed. Stephanie's training helped her take immediate action and perform CPR. She then instructed bystanders to get the defibrillator and she was able to revive the man before paramedics arrived.

"I think the training is what lifted me up off the seat and threw me in there," Stephanie recalls. "You know exactly what to do and there is no question about what you have to do."

She remembers beginning BLS training 4 years ago and feeling uncomfortable in her surroundings. "To know that you have come so far; to be able to help somebody is really rewarding," she says.

"Obviously, it would have been very different if he had not been revived, but it's a success story only because you have the appropriate training to be able to help."

Stephanie was pleasantly surprised at her colleagues responses to her experience.

"In typical Stephanie style, she didn't think this was a big deal," shares Paul Leblanc, nurse manager of operations on Unit 3300. "She thought this is my job, this is what I am suppose to do and I am committed to that."

Paul says when Stephanie shared her story with the staff, he could see the room room rekindle their passion for nursing. "And this is the reason people went into nursing, to care and to take care of families and do those things that really make a difference," he explains.

Mary Lindsey, clinical operations director on the third floor of Duke Hospital, says everyone gave Stephanie a high five. "We were all just so proud of her," she says. "Her training, her education and all her experience really came through."

Stephanie says the first thing she did after the experience was call her grandmother.

"I asked her if they had a defibrillator at their church," she says. "Every minute that you are in cardiac arrest your chances of living decrease by 10 percent if you are not being resuscitated. To think that in 5 or 10 minutes you could be dead and having these things things there is so important, especially in a public place."

Now Stephanie takes time to notice where defibrillators are in public places. She shares that while walking through the tunnel leaving the hospital last week, she made a note of where all the emergency equipment was located.

"My job will continue; my life will continue, but I hope the outlook that I have as far as what actually is serious -- that may change a little bit," she says.

Paul feels that Stephanie's experience is a "valuable lesson that says, we touch lives not only here at Duke, but outside and at any point in time."