A nurse from Huntley was recognized for helping the save the life of an unresponsive woman involved in a crash as the nurse was traveling with four colleagues to a conference.
Advocate Health Care said five registered nurses from Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin were traveling to present at a professional conference in Iowa in April.
The group came upon a serious two-vehicle crash along Route 64 in DeKalb County.
“Being passionate healers, Ashley, Tara, Jennifer, Beena and Patty felt compelled to stop and see if anyone needed help,” Advocate Health Care said.
The crash occurred at a four-way stop intersection and one of the cars was in the ditch while the other was in the middle of the intersection.
The group found a woman who was injured and unresponsive in her car.
Together with a bystander, they worked as a team to get the driver out of her car, stabilize her spine and start to assess her.
Nurse Ashley Huizar, who lives in Huntley and works in the hospital’s emergency department, found that the victim had no pulse.
She began CPR without hesitation. “Thanks to their instincts and quick action, the woman was responsive by the time medics arrived.”
She was transported to the hospital and is continuing to recover.
The nurses had taken a different route than usual to Iowa that day due to traffic congestion.
“They all feel grateful they trusted in the GPS. It put them in the right place at the right time to help save a life. Their dedication and compassionate care, both on and off the clock, inspires us all!” Advocate Health Care said.
In a podcast interview, Huizar recalled the situation and described how she and her colleagues took action.
“… we run up to the car and this lady was, she was agonal breathing, and in my head, I’m like, ‘okay, this is not good.’ So it’s like, all right, we’re going to do this. So we try and open the car doors. They’re locked and then, you know, I’m looking at her and I’m yelling at her, I’m talking to her,” Huizar said.
“My adrenaline is pumping. I’m like, it’s okay, hang in there. You know, and knowing that she can’t hear me. And then all of a sudden, I know she just stops breathing and becomes unresponsive,” Huizar said.
Someone smashed the car window and two bystanders pulled the woman out of the driver’s seat.
Huizar started CPR and two minutes later, the woman began breathing again and was talking.
The nurses continued on their drive to Iowa and talked about the “wild experience” the entire way.