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Nursing alumna saves the life of a mother of two
AFTER A 12-HOUR NIGHT SHIFT AT LOS ROBLES Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, emergency room nurse Claire Gillette was exhausted. The CSUCI alumna almost skipped a hot yoga class but decided a workout in a heated room might be just what she needed. Had Gillette not made the last-minute decision to join the class on that autumn day in 2021, and had she not been prepared with nursing skills she learned at CSUCI, a Thousand Oaks wife and mother of two in the front row of Gillette’s class would no longer be here. “Claire is the only reason I’m alive today,” said Erika Cole. The class was almost over when Gillette, who was in the back, heard a commotion in the front of the class. Class members were gathering around a woman curled up on her yoga mat, her face blue. “Is she O.K.?” someone asked, followed by a friend’s
panicked, “Erika!” Gillette rushed to the front of the room, knelt, and searched for the woman’s pulse. There was none. “The music’s going, it’s hot and humid, and I’m screaming, ‘Turn off the music! Cool off the room! Get me an AED! Call 911!” Gillette said. Gillette began pumping Cole’s chest, doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Twice, Cole’s heart rhythm flatlined, and twice, Gillette had to shock her with the AED (Automatic External Defibrillator). “I was getting tired and somebody said, ‘She’s got two kids!’ and I thought ‘I’m going to save her if it kills me,’” Gillette said. After Cole was rushed to Los Robles and regained consciousness in her hospital room the next day, the first thing she did was ask to meet Gillette. “Claire walked in and said, ‘I’m pretty sure I broke all ABOVE: Erika Cole and Claire Gillette.
6 CHANNEL MAGAZINE
by KIM LAMB GREGORY
