Answering the call to serve

Each of us work here, in healthcare, because it is our calling. Whether you are in direct patient care or in support services, you work here because you are called to serve others. You touch the lives of everyone who walks through our doors. A recent story involving two Sunrise Hospital employees exemplifies this notion beyond measure –answering the call to help someone in need.

Heather Hurlburt, RN, pediatric ER at Sunrise Hospital, was enjoying a day with her family on Lake Mohave when their boat stopped working. A kind gentleman helped tow them to shore. After asking how they could repay him, he told Heather and her family, “All I ask is that today you help someone else in need.” Little did Heather know, but she was about to do just that.

Thankful, Heather and her family loaded the car to head back to Vegas. On the drive, a Jeep driving erratically cut them off and sped away. When Heather got to the top of the hill she noticed the Jeep pulled to the side of the road and a man laying in the road in a puddle of blood. Jumping into action, Heather immediately ran to go help. As she approached, coincidentally, Joseph Sweeten, RN, Neuro ICU at Sunrise Hospital, happened to already be there and had started to provide care.

The man bleeding on the ground was locked out of his Jeep and had severed his brachial artery while trying to break the window. Time was of the essence. As Heather and Joseph worked together to save this man, two other individuals approached – a medic and a pediatric ER nurse from UMC. While trying to create a tourniquet out of items found on the boat, the nurse ran to her car to retrieve a tactical tourniquet and immediately placed it on the individual. With the help of the tourniquet and other interventions, the man went from not having a pulse to being able to state his name. The individuals stayed with him while they waited for a helicopter to arrive.

If it were not for the immediate and heroic actions of these four individuals working together and their knowledge of how to stop the bleed, this man could have lost his life.  Actions like those of Joseph, Heather and the two other individuals who assisted in answering the call to help someone in need must be commended. Because of them, this man had the opportunity to make it to the hospital.

Anyone can learn the life-saving measures to stop the bleed through the Stop the Bleed course offered once a month by trauma services at Sunrise Hospital. You can register for the class by visiting SunriseHospital.com.