Natalie is myfiancée. Recently, we were out of town visiting my mother. My mother called us at our hotel in the morning to ask me to bring Natalie to her home to check on her 65-year-old husband because he hadn't been feeling well for a while and seemed as though he was getting worse. We went to her home and Natalie performed some evaluations of him to get a feel for his condition at that time. She then advised that it was her professional opinion that he should go to the ED to be seen to get a better idea of what was wrong with him. He declined and said he would go if things got worse over the next day or two. We left the house a few hours later to return to our hotel and leave town for our next stop for the weekend. As we took off to leave, my mother called again to ask if we could return so I could help him to the bathroom and in to bed so he could rest. Moments after entering the door, my step-father turned his head to his left and proceeded to have a horrible seizure. Natalie's training and education immediately kicked in. Because of how he looked, she checked this pulse only to find he had none. She told me to get him on to the floor and she began to perform chest compressions as my mother called 911. She did compressions until she needed to switch and instructed me as to what to do. I have never trained for this or performed it in my life but because of her instruction I was able to assist in the life saving measures. She and I continued to alternate doing compressions until the first responder arrived about four minutes later. When the first responder arrived, she interacted with him as a nurse and got him up to speed on the events leading up to the scene he arrived to. She performed compressions with the first responder and did some other related things as my step-father was intubated. It took several minutes for other first responders to arrive and then several more before the ambulance made it from the city to the woods where this was happening. The ambulance finally arrived and they were able to get his heart beating again with medicine. And all the while, Natalie remained calm and steadfast in her ability to control the situation and do what needed to be done to try to maintain life. This was the first time she had ever met my step-father face to face and she reacted just as her education and training taught her.
After he was taken to the hospital, doctors informed my family that had it not been for Natalie's quick thinking and nursing ability, my step-father would have been dead before the ambulance made it to us. We were told that he probably would not survive this incident. As of today, he is still in the ICU, but he is awake, alert, responsive, and talking. He is breathing on his own and has stunned the doctors. And again today, we were told that had it not been for Natalie, he would not be where he is right now. Natalie is a DAISY Nurse not just for this, but for all the other exemplary work she performs on the job each day that she works at St. Luke's.