Employee Spotlight: Heroes on Land and in the Air

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT

Heroes on Land and in the Air

Two off-duty FCS nurses save life on flight

BY PAIGE AIGRET

Becton J. Roddenberry, BSN, RN, OCN, CEN, EMT-P

Lead Nurse, FCS Tallahassee Cancer Center

Angella Campbell, RN, OCN

FCS Orlando Orange

Becton Roddenberry and Angella Campbell are both registered nurses with Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute (FCS). While treating patients is hardly new to them, they didn’t expect to be putting their experience to work while flying more than 30,000 feet in the air.

Roddenberry and Campbell were traveling home to Florida after having attended the 47th annual Oncology Nursing Society Congress, held in Anaheim, California. Just as they had settled into their American Airlines flight to layover in Dallas, Texas, something went awry.

A call for medical attention came, as a flight attendant made an overhead announcement asking if any medical professionals were on board.

“I guess adrenaline had taken over because I don’t recall hearing the announcement,” Campbell said.

She hadn’t needed the announcement to know help was needed. She’d heard a woman in a nearby seat cry out, “oh, god!” as she was trying to shake an incapacitated passenger awake and keep her from falling out of her seat.

“When I realized that the young lady was unconscious, my first thought was I needed to do something and my second thought was to locate Becton,” said Campbell.

Roddenberry echoed Campbell’s sentiment, saying, “I don’t think there was any initial thought, it’s more of a reflex.” All that came to his mind was getting the passenger stabilized.

The passenger, a young woman, was in what Campbell noted to be a “catatonic state.” She had fainted and was extremely lethargic and pale. Immediately after seeing the situation at hand, Roddenberry and Campbell locked eyes, both ready to respond.

Roddenberry, having been a paramedic and former emergency room nurse who now serves as Lead Nurse at the FCS Tallahassee Cancer Center, and Campbell, a registered nurse at the FCS Orlando Orange clinic, made the perfect quick-response team.

The two carefully laid the passenger in the aisle and began their assessment, finding her vitals to be concerning — blood pressure and pulse rate were extremely low.

Thankfully, American Airlines was prepared. “I was both relieved and impressed with the amount of medical equipment available,” Roddenberry said. The airplane’s emergency kit contained an automated external defibrillator, IV supplies, IV fluids and epinephrine, among other medications and supplies.

Roddenberry and Campbell began the rapid administration of IV fluids, and the passenger-turned-patient started to improve — her blood pressure and blood flow began to stabilize. Roddenberry recalled, “She regained consciousness, became alert and oriented and her skin returned to that beautiful pink us nurses like to see!”

As the passenger began to recover, it became clear that she’d suffered from a vasovagal syncopal episode, where intense emotional triggers, like fear, can cause fainting and decreased heart rate and blood pressure.

With the patient stabilized, Roddenberry felt safe in advising the captain to continue their flight to their original destination, just under an hour away at this point. American Airlines colleagues on land in Dallas were informed and had emergency medical service personnel ready to assist.

Thanks to the quick reactions of the FCS nurses, the young woman was safely escorted off the plane for further evaluation. Their efforts didn’t go unnoticed by their patientin-flight, who found Roddenberry through Facebook not long after the incident, wanting to thank him.

“That warmed my heart to know she's okay,” Roddenberry said. “We will continue to stay in touch!”

FCS has incorporated teamwork into its newly updated core values as it is an essential element in providing quality health care — this incident has proved that.

“I couldn't have succeeded without Angella’s help,” Roddenberry said. “She was beside me and assisted the entire time. She continued to monitor the patient and her vitals, communicating with me until we landed in Dallas. She was a rock star, indeed!”

While many see these nurses as heroes, the two remain humble in their actions.

Both received a letter from the medical director of American Airlines, which included a gift of 25,000 Skymiles in appreciation for their heroic efforts.

“Although not necessary, I am certainly very grateful,” Roddenberry said. “We simply did what any other nurse would do in a time of need!”

“That’s what we were trained to do, no matter what nursing specialty we later choose to practice,” said Campbell, adding that, “as I always say, I’m always on duty; a nurse is always on duty.”