My husband experienced a medical emergency while already in the hospital. He went from stable to critical in less than two minutes, right before my eyes. I felt completely helpless. He had to be defibrillated three times within just a few minutes.

Janice, the nurse assigned to him, recognized the urgency and said she wanted to press the code button. Despite some initial resistance from the nurse practitioner at the time, Janice stood her ground and firmly said, “I am pressing the button.”

I am beyond thankful she made that decision. It may have saved his life. P needed every bit of medical expertise available in those crucial minutes, hours, and days that followed. Janice knew he needed more help. She had been in and out of his room all morning, monitoring him, administering medication that was supposed to stabilize him. He had just arrived from Nasseff 4 at 7 a.m. after coding on that floor, requiring CPR and defibrillation to bring him back. Janice kept explaining the medications, closely monitoring his condition, and ultimately made the critical decision to call for reinforcements.

Once the code was called, the medical staff in his room went from just a few to over twenty people, each playing a role in saving his life. In total, P required 21 defibrillation shocks just to get him stable enough to be intubated and placed on an ECMO machine. I was there for all 21 of those shocks. I needed to be. I held his hand when I could, and I kept talking to him, even as he drifted in and out of consciousness, reassuring him he was going to be okay, even though I didn’t know if that was true. I tried not to let him see the fear in my eyes. I wanted to give him strength.

If this had happened anywhere other than Mayo Clinic, I don’t believe my husband would be alive today. The medical team was incredible, and I especially believe that Janice, our nurse, made the life-saving decision to press that code button, bringing in the team P needed. Her quick thinking and refusal to delay saved his life. This all followed a failed ablation and a concerning increase in PVCs, which is why he was still in the hospital. The team had wisely decided to keep him for monitoring. Had he gone home, this might have happened with no medical help nearby, and we could have lost him.

I am endlessly thankful to every nurse, doctor, and caregiver who played a part in helping my husband. It’s been a rough road, and there’s still a long way to go, but I’d rather have a bumpy road than no road at all. He’s still here. And he’s everything to me. Thank you, Mayo Clinic. I will be forever grateful.