Svetlana Rowland and Josh Patterson-Pope were going about their normal shift at the Old Mill restaurant when a customer began calling for 911. A man had collapsed and needed medical assistance. Rowland and her manager went into the waiting room to check out all of the commotion. The man was sitting upright and insisted that he was fine and did not need any help. But a mere five minutes later, someone again called upon people in the restaurant, asking if anyone knew CPR. Rowland immediately ran to get Patterson-Pope; they were both nursing students.
““We felt his pulse and tried to talk to him, but there was no response. He was gasping for air, he was blue, and so we started CPR and I don’t even know, it was just like I was sleeping and just doing it and doing it until the ambulance arrived,” Rowland says of the incident.
The man was taken to the hospital and made a full recovery. He sent an email to the Old Mill, thanking them for saving his life. Patterson-Pope is grateful that the man is okay, and for the experience itself. He says, “It’s validation for the two years of nursing school, the committment, the time away from family. We get into this profession to save people and help people, and we just got lucky.”
