When a flight attendant on Flight #1514 from Washington, D.C. to Chicago went on the P.A. and asked, “Are there any medical personnel on board?” It was not a well-seasoned doctor in his late 50’s that got up. Instead, Nicole Rosello, 17, rushed out of her seat to help.
Rosello, a senior in the Health Academy at Miami Lakes Educational Center, is a Certified Nursing Assistant and a Student Practical Nurse. She was on her way home from a five day Junior State of America (JSA) convention in Washington, D.C. when she got the opportunity to apply the nursing skills that she learned in high school in a real life scenario.
When Rosello arrived to the back of the plane, a woman in her early 60’s was laying on the floor, passed out on one of the flight attendant’s laps. Rosello recorded the woman’s vitals.
“I jumped into nurse mode and began to assess her, beginning with her pulse, the temperature of her skin, and checked her pupils. I noticed everything seemed to be in order,” said Rosello.
Her breathing was slow, but steady. Rosello sat with the woman, observing her vitals, until the woman awoke. After the woman, who said she was taking strong medications, was strong enough to stand up, Rosello escorted her to her seat and recorded her blood pressure and pulse again. Everything still seemed to be in order.
“She later reported that she was experiencing diarrhea and I thought to myself dehydration, with strong medication, may lead to fatigue and syncope,” said Rosello. Half an hour later, Rosello gave the woman something to drink and recorded her vitals again. The woman was stable until landing, where she was escorted to a local hospital by paramedics.
Coincidentally, on the same trip, at Chicago Midway International Airport, Rosello came across another person who needed medical attention. This time, it was a woman who fell, hit her head and started bleeding. Rosello stopped the bleeding and ran to the gate for her next flight to Miami.
It’s not the first time that Rosello has had to jump into action to care for a patient. “I have a desire to help others,” she said. “I almost missed my flight home, but I couldn’t leave knowing that there was someone who needed my help.”
Rosello is graduating from Miami Lakes Educational Center this June and plans to major in Psychology and Neurobiology.