Nursing student helps save a man believed to be overdosing
St. Pete nursing student saves man's life
A nursing student in St. Petersburg saved a man's life while she was on her lunch break a few weeks ago. FOX 13's Kylie Jones reports.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A nursing student in St. Petersburg saved a man's life while she was on her lunch break a few weeks ago.
Lesly Arroyo-Pena is in her final year at Galen College of Nursing in St. Petersburg.
The backstory:
Arroyo-Pena says she always had a passion for nursing, after interacting with nurses at the hospital where her siblings were born.
"I always had a very good time when I went to the hospital, mainly because all the happy memories were seeing my brothers and sisters being born," she said.
As she got older, Arroyo-Pena continued to feel drawn to the profession.
"It's very humbling because you get to help people when they're at their lowest," she said.
Big picture view:
"Some days are more exciting than others in nursing, and you still encounter those opportunities where you are truly making a life or death decision," Dr. Kristen Wessel, the Dean of Galen College of Nursing's Tampa Bay campus said.
The opportunity for Arroyo-Pena to transfer her training and knowledge into the real world came when she least expected it.
One day in December, she was driving back to the clinic from her lunch break, when she drove up to a line of cars.
"When I looked over, I saw that there was a man lying in the middle of the road and that's when I was like, 'Did someone hit him?'" Arroyo-Pena said.
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She heard a commotion outside, so she quickly pulled over and hopped out of her car to see if she could help.
"I check for a pulse," she said. "I see if he had any. He did, but it was kind of faint, and his eyes were kind of rolling back."
Arroyo-Pena realized the man was showing signs of a possible overdose.
Coincidentally, she had recently learned about administering Narcan in her clinic, and kept a box of it in her car.
"You never know when you might need it," Arroyo-Pena said.
She grabbed the Narcan from her car and administered it to the man, while someone else called 911.
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"Once I saw him perk up, I was like, Oh my God, thank you, God. He's awake," she said.
Arroyo-Pena and another person stayed with the man until an ambulance came.
What they're saying:
Arroyo-Pena's teachers and the Dean were in awe of her quick-thinking.
"I don't know that she necessarily knew at that time, and maybe even still to this day, doesn't quite give herself the credit that she deserves for taking action," Wessel said. "So many people would've just passed on by."
Wessel calls this a case of divine timing, with Arroyo-Pena being in the right place at the right time and having recently been taught about administering Narcan.
"When they get the opportunity to take action and they see that it was beneficial to another human being, that's when reality hits for them," Wessel said.
Arroyo-Pena says this experience gives her a confidence boost and the motivation to continue forward in the field.
"Just don't be scared to apply what you learned," she said.
What's next:
Arroyo-Pena expects to graduate nursing school in December.
The Source: Information for this story came from interviews conducted by Fox 13's Kylie Jones.