Early one more morning in January, a mother awoke to her son, P, making a strange noise. Thinking it was snoring, she tried to rouse him to no avail. Knowing that Shelby, a house guest, was a nurse, the mother summoned help.

Shelby jumped out of bed and sprung into action. P was moved to the floor, and Shelby began CPR. As she was doing this, she was communicating with the EMTs. Even though the mother is not a medical professional, she understood what she was hearing was critical: no pulse, pupils unreactive, and no breathing. Simultaneously performing CPR and communicating with the team on the way, Shelby was talking the mother through the situation. The mother distinctly remembers saying it cannot end like this. Shelby's immediate response was "help is on the way and it is not ending while I am here".

Independently, she continued the compressions until the arrival of the EMTs and quickly briefed them. At that point, her focus shifted to the mother. Shelby explained what was happening and why. Despite a chaotic scene, the mother felt that things were under control. As the ambulance left with P on board, Shelby got behind the wheel of her car and drove, in very poor winter driving conditions, to the ER. Due to Covid, she was not allowed to enter but stayed nearby.

This is just the beginning of a long story with twists and turns, but we are joyful to report that P is home and doing very well. We have since learned that patients who suffer a cardiac arrest at home with bystander CPR have a very poor survival rate. However, fortunately for P, he received CPR from a fully trained, calm, compassionate nurse. Without the support of a team or medical apparatus, Shelby knew what to do and she did it. We are beyond grateful that not only her training, but her character enabled her to, quite literally, save P's life. She managed to do this and support his mother through some of the worst minutes of her life. For these reasons, we truly believe Shelby Farmer is worthy of receiving a DAISY Award.