My Dad was hanging up his Christmas light when he began to feel unwell. As the hour went by he got worse and my Mom called me to rush over there to help. It had been a phone call that I dreaded, but I thought I would get it 10 to 15 years from now. When I arrived I saw that my Dad was pale, sweaty, white, and could hardly breathe. I realized this was worse than I thought and we immediately put him in the car and drove him to PIH.

At 5:14 pm, about 3 blocks away from PIH, my Dad slumped over and was unresponsive. My husband drove like a maniac and ran the red lights as I called 911 and amidst the panic, freight, and chaos we made it and accidentally parked where the ambulances park. I jumped out like a crazed person and banged on the window of the ambulance next to us to see if the paramedic inside could help, but he was too slow for me so I bolted to the front of the entrance of the ER. Luckily there was a nurse right outside helping a couple check in and I frantically asked if she could help my Dad. She asked where he was and I told her he was in our car next to the ambulance. She then asked if we could drive him up to the front entrance, but I told her we couldn’t because he had passed out on the way over here and needed help now. Upon saying that she immediately changed her demeanor and sprang into action. She ran over to our car with me and immediately began checking him and just like Spider Man she sprung into our car and began CPR. You hear people always saying nurses are heroes, which they are, but let me tell you this woman is a true superhero in disguise. I was blown away to see such a petite person become something so mighty in a matter of seconds. Soon more people came outside to help and she yelled for them to lower the seat and continued to work on him. They quickly pulled my Dad out once a gurney arrived and wheeled him into the ER. When he was taken out he looked like a lifeless rag doll. I heard someone say, “there was no pulse and he wasn’t breathing.” I was in shock and in my heart I knew he had passed and had basically resigned to the fact that he was gone.

We were whisked inside and taken into the family waiting room where that particular nurse told us that we would be given an update and she left. We anxiously waited and wondered what could possibly be done at this point, but at 5:56 pm someone came in and told us that my Dad had been revived and was on life support. At that moment I knew that the Spider Woman nurse saved my Dad’s life. It turns out he had a heart attack and was going to need surgery. When he was taken into surgery our Spider Woman nurse took us to the lobby to anxiously wait to see if he would survive it.

Later on, in the evening the same nurse came out to check on us and wish us well, which touched our hearts and showed me she truly cared about us and what she does. I forgot to ask for her name to be able to thank her later and tried getting it with no success, but weeks later I got a call asking me about our Spider Woman nurse. I was thrilled to finally find out who she was, but realized there are not enough words, flowers, or gifts to show how grateful we are for her and her incredible skills as a nurse, but I’m glad that I can finally say THANK YOU for saving my father’s life Sondra Harris! And I’m glad that she is being recognized for the incredible job she did