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| Contact: Christine Hill: 612-873-5719 |
08/03/09 |
On two separate occasions, nurses from the GI Lab at Hennepin County Medical Center saved lives beyond the walls of the Level One Trauma Center.
Annie Swanson, RN was in Iowa seated at her niece’s graduation ceremony from Drake University when someone shouted, “Is there a nurse or doctor in the house?”
“I jumped over the seats and found a man slumped over on the bleachers,” explains Swanson. “He didn’t have a pulse. I asked his wife about his cardiac history, and she said that he had bypass surgery 10 years ago. I immediately began CPR.”
Swanson performed chest compressions on Glenn Koenen until the paramedics arrived. He was taken to the nearest hospital where he underwent double bypass surgery.
“I’m very happy that there are still people out there who care enough to help,” says Koenen. “I can’t thank Annie enough for what she’s done. Her actions speak so well of your hospital.”
Earlier this year, nurse Mickey Hayes was driving on University Avenue in Fridley when she came upon the scene of a car crash.
“I saw a man trapped in his car,” said Hayes, “He was at a stoplight and had been rear-ended by a large truck. He struck the dashboard so hard that his seat broke when the impact propelled him backwards. I could see that he wasn’t breathing, and the only way I could get to him was through the back window.”
With her feet dangling through the broken rear window, Hayes reached Thomas Harrigan and was able to secure his airway and re-establish respirations. Harrigan sustained multiple traumatic injuries from the crash and was hospitalized for 21 days at HCMC before being transferred to a rehabilitation center.
“I have no doubt that Mickey saved my life,” says Harrigan, who has nominated Hayes for the City of Fridley’s Citizen’s Service Award. “Her response was nothing short of heroic.”
Both of these nurses quietly accept thanks for their heroic efforts, and humbly attribute their response to one simple mission that doesn’t go away when they’re off duty.
“The instinct to care for others doesn’t go away when we clock out,” says Swanson. “I’m glad we were both in the right place at the right time.”
Celebrating its 20th year of being Minnesota’s first Level 1 Trauma Center, Hennepin County Medical Center is a comprehensive academic medical center and public teaching hospital with the largest emergency department in the state. In addition to the 469-bed acute care hospital and primary care and specialty clinics located in downtown Minneapolis, Hennepin offers four primary care clinics in Minneapolis and suburban Hennepin County.
Hennepin County Medical Center was recently recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” for the thirteenth year in a row.
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