My Own Guardian Angel
By Nancy Jane Earnest
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Last December I was shopping with my friend, Ann. Leaving the store, I stepped
off the curb ahead of her toward the parking lot. She shouted my name when she
saw a car careening straight toward me. I never saw it, but the car knocked me
off my feet and onto its hood, then sent my limp body sailing 10 feet into the
air. I landed on my back in the parking lot directly in front of the car that
was still running, but stuck on a median.
The driver tried desperately to get away, but onlookers detained him. I hear he
was arrested, but I only know this second hand because I was surrounded by the
crowd as I lay on the asphalt. A young woman was asking me questions and
keeping my head immobile, continually reassuring me that everything was going
to be OK.
Christal Sheets, my guardian angel, off duty from her position as an emergency
room nurse at Johnson City Medical Center, just happened to be crossing the
same street and witnessed the accident. She says she reacted without thinking
to stabilize me until the EMS crew arrived.
It was several months later that I met Christal by chance in the emergency room
at JCMC. When I was interviewing other nurses for a story, I mentioned my
December experience and desire to find my angel. This set the wheels in motion.
Questions bounced from one employee to another and within minutes Christal was
giving me a hug. She just happened to be on duty that day. She, too, had
wondered what happened to me.
We met again at her home, which, incidentally, is just a few blocks from mine. I
enjoyed getting to know her. Christal has been an emergency room nurse for
eight years. She received her undergraduate degree at ETSU and is now working
on a master
’s degree that will enable her to become a nurse practitioner. She’s interested in family medicine. “Some people like nurse practitioners better than doctors,” she smiled. “They say they’re easier to talk to. So I’m in school, I’m a single mom, and I work part time and go to school part time. I’ll graduate in 2010.”
She’s a petite bundle of energy. Her daughter, Maddison, is in 3rd grade at Harold
McCormick School in Elizabethton, my old elementary school. I keep thinking of
all these coincidences. But the biggest coincidence is the fact that there was
not only one, but two nurses right on the scene at the time of my accident in
the middle of the Christmas shopping season at noon, when most people would be
having lunch.
Christal put a friend of hers, a nurse in the crowd named Deanna, to work
helping check me out before I ever thought about moving or trying to get up.
“I see things like that when people come in the ER,” she said during our interview. “I also have my EMT, but I don’t ever use it. I always wondered what I’d do in that situation, and now I know. I didn’t even think about it. And here you were in front of his car and he kept trying
to get away,
“she said, remembering.
So how dangerous is it for someone to come to the aid of an injured person? “ Make sure that you aren’t putting yourself in danger before you act, ” she said. “Your first human instinct may be to help that person, but if you’re going to injure yourself as well, you’re not going to be much help to the person. If anyone is in a wrecked vehicle,
it
’s important to make sure that they don’t move their neck if it’s fractured,” she added. It could paralyze them.” This spinal immobilization was what she was performing on me when she held my
head still while I was on the ground.
Anyone who has ever been in the vicinity of a wreck or other accident has
probably wondered if they should physically touch an injured person.
“I guess it would depend on your level of comfort whether you take care of them
or not. Call 911 and explain how you found them [the injured person]. As much
information as you can give dispatchers will help them be prepared when they
get there. They will know whether the injured is unconscious or not. If it
’s a burning car or something like that…” her voice trailed off.
I don’t think I would be brave enough to pull someone from a burning car. But you don’t know what you would do until it happens. Christal found that out during my
ordeal. She risked her safety to come to my aid in front of a car that was
still running. Her quick thinking lowered my risk of serious injury. She
remained calm and made me feel calm in the middle of chaos. When nothing else
was under control, she was. When I went sailing through the air and landed
without broken bones, a concussion, or even a bleeding scratch she was right
there to catch me. I don
’t think it was a coincidence that she was there.
Thank you, my angel.
