Chance encounter with cardiac nurse helps save Sun City gardener after sudden heart attack
BRANDON, Fla. - Jeff Pollier collapsed in a community garden on October 19, 2025, but by sheer coincidence, a cardiac nurse who happened to be walking by jumped in to help, performing CPR and helping get Pollier the care he needed to survive.
The backstory:
Jeff and Robin Pollier were tending their plot at the Tillers & Toilers community garden when the emergency happened. The couple, who is approaching their 35th wedding anniversary, often spend time growing vegetables together.
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But on October 19, Robin Pollier said she suddenly realized her husband had disappeared from where he had been working nearby. When she looked toward an alley, she saw him collapsed on the ground.
Robin said Jeff’s eyes were open, and his lips had already begun turning blue — signs that something was seriously wrong. Terrified, she called out for help.
Dig deeper:
At that same moment, Sharon Gibbs, the director of critical care at HCA Florida Brandon Hospital, was walking nearby to visit a friend’s garden plot. Gibbs said she heard a thud and saw Jeff Pollier on the ground.
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Even though it was her day off, she immediately jumped into action, handing her dog to her husband and rushed over to help. Realizing his heart had stopped, Gibbs ordered her husband to grab the nearest automated external defibrillator (AED) and began performing CPR.
She later said her mindset in that moment was simple: Jeff was not going to die that day.
Big picture view:
Jeff Pollier was rushed to a hospital before being transferred to HCA Florida Brandon Hospital, where he underwent quadruple bypass surgery. More than four months later, he is back tending the garden he loves.
He now wears a defibrillator, and the garden space where the incident happened has been equipped with another AED.
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What they're saying:
The Polliers said the connection they now share with Gibbs is hard to fully express.
Robin Pollier believes fate played a role in bringing the nurse to the garden at exactly the right time.
"God put her in that spot at that particular moment of time. So, we'll forever be grateful for what she did and the fact that she was a nurse, and she's a cardiac nurse," she said.
Gibbs said saving Jeff Pollier gave her a powerful reminder of why her work matters, knowing he now has more time with his family and loved ones.
"I think it's one of those things that, you know, had I not been here, we may not have had the same outcome," she said.
The Source: Information for this story comes from interviews with Jeff and Robin Pollier and Sharon Gibbs, the director of critical care at HCA Florida Brandon Hospital, as well as reporting from FOX 13 News.