No hesitation, Baptist Health staffer in Jacksonville saves man's life during grocery visit
One day in Publix, Terry Mosley and her daughter rounded a corner and saw a store employee on the floor.
He was covered in blood and he was not breathing. His lips were blue, he was pale and clammy, all signs of cardiac arrest.
But Mosley, a certified nursing assistant at Baptist Medical Center South in Jacksonville, knew what to do. Her basic life-support training — required of all clinical staff at Baptist Health facilities and provided on site — kicked in.
"It felt great because the classes just came to me. Call 911, flip him over, the … class was everything," she said. "I am so thankful of the great training I had to help save this young man."
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Mosley checked the man's pulse and told another store employee to call 911 and bring her an automated external defibrillator. The easy-to-use portable electronic device found in most public buildings analyzes the heart's rhythm and, if necessary, delivers an electrical shock.
She gave him 12 minutes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, and three rounds of shock from the defibrillator before paramedics arrived. They intubated him, using a tube to open his airway; placed him on a "thumper," a device that delivers continuous chest compressions, and took him to the nearest hospital.
Mosley later found out that the man spent three days in intensive care and is now recovering at home.
She urged anyone who can to take basic life-support classes to be trained in CPR, using automated external defibrillators and relieving airway obstructions. The training can provide the difference between life and death, which Mosley said she didn't even realize until later.
"It’s hard to put it into words," Mosley said. "It didn’t sink in what I had done … Just how serious it was."
Her boss, Baptist Health President and CEO Michael Mayo, found the words.
"There is no doubt Terry saved this young man’s life," he said.
Mayo likened Mosley's "heroic act" to the recent mid-flight intervention of a Baptist nurse who helped a passenger having a medical crisis, he said.
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"Terry was in an uncomfortable situation," he said. "However, having a sense of duty and recalling her basic life-support training, she responded. … She had hoped she would never have to use it. But she did! Because of her excellent training, she could recall everything she was taught."
Mosley followed each step of the protocol she learned in the training.
"When it was over, she said her knees were shaking and then the reality of it all began to sink in," Mayo said. "Terry had just acted instinctively and confidently, without hesitation, based on her training and without concern for who was watching."
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, government funding reductions, staff shortages and the resulting work-life balance challenges, "individually, it can seem like people are always at odds, struggling to get along and feeling like no one cares." he said. "These worldly demands and strains are always there, but at the core, there are always those with a higher calling who do the right thing and genuinely care for one another."
bcravey@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4109
BASIC LIFE SUPPORT TRAINING
Here are a few Jacksonville-area locations that offer basic life-support training classes:
• American Red Cross — redcross.org/local/florida/take-a-class/bls-jacksonville-fl
• Florida State College at Jacksonville, in conjunction with American Heart Association and Jacksonville Fire Rescue — fscj.edu/academics/workforce-education/cwe/health/cce0653.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville nursing assistant saves man's life at Publix grocery store
