Cardiac Kid

Story by Casey Ressler — Frontiersman Valley Life editor

Thanks to a nursing class, one Colony senior makes leap from bingo queen to life-saving hero

Colony senior Jessica Thygeson just wanted to play some bingo. But before she ever got the chance to mark B-4 on her card, she had a little business to take care of — saving a man's life.

Thygeson had just walked into a bingo parlor on Tudor Road in Anchorage April 17, when she sat down and noticed an elderly man a few tables away having some physical difficulties.

The man then slumped over and fell out of his chair, and Thygeson knew the situation was not good. She jumped into action and took over to help save the man from dying of a heart attack.

"Everyone was standing around him, so I cleared the area to get some space first," Thygeson said. "I checked to see if he was coherent. He was conscious, but he wasn't alert. Then I took his pulse, and it was really, really light. I knew right away it was something with his heart."

And just how did Thygeson know it was the elderly man's heart?

Sure, her mother is a nurse, so that may have helped her see the signs of a heart attack. But the biggest reason Thygeson knew what to do is a class being taught here in the Mat-Su Borough School District.

At Wasilla High School, the district is offering a a state-certified certified nurses' assistant (CNA) program, in which students from around the district can be certified as CNAs, right out of high school, and step into high-paying nurses' assistant jobs, almost immediately following graduation.

In Thygeson's case, the class can also help save a man's life.

Using the knowledge she gained in the CNA course, Thygeson made sure the man squeezed both her hands constantly.

As the stunned crowd watched, the teen-ager continued her seemingly professional care by keeping the man coherent, asking him about his family's medical history and checking to see if he was a diabetic and needed insulin.

As paramedics arrived, the man's pulse was faint. In fact, they could not even get a blood pressure reading on him.

Thygeson moved away to let the paramedics do their job, knowing she helped the man as much as she could. But the paramedics insisted on Thygeson's help, even after they arrived.

"I started to walk away, and they said, ‘No, no, no. Stay here,'" Thygeson said.

They took action, and revived the man. One paramedic told Thygeson that without her quick and conscientious actions, the man probably would not have survived the massive heart attack.

"That made me feel pretty special," Thygeson said. "They said that without all the family history and the things I did, he probably would have died. They wouldn't have had enough time."

She has not been in contact with the man since he was taken to the hospital by the paramedics, but she said she would have reacted the same if it had been someone she knew, or a complete stranger.

"I know his name is John from saying it over and over," Thygeson said. "But I guess I never did get his last name."

Thygeson said she probably would not have been able to perform as admirably if she was not enrolled in the CNA class.

"I would have been able to keep him sitting there until paramedics came, but I would have never known to take his family history and to check to see if he was diabetic," Thygeson said. "Those were things I learned in the class. It was like extra credit in my own mind."

The class is taught by Hanna Smith and Glenda Kish, and 11 students completed it this year.

Every student had to apply and go through an extensive interview process just to be selected to participate.

"It was a pretty tough selection process," Thygeson said. "You couldn't just apply and get into it."

The students then underwent six weeks of book work, and followed it with a lengthy clinical course. Now, those 11 students, including Thygeson, must take the state board tests — the exact same tests an adult has to take to become a certified CNA.

"These kids already have good job offers, right out of high school," said Kim Floyd, the school district's public information specialist.

"There is a big demand for them right now. More than half of them already have offers," Floyd added.

Despite all the work, Thygeson said it is worth it, because it gives the students a head start in the nursing field.

Once certified, a CNA helps with the personal care of people. Registered nurses must administer medication and oversee all medical-related procedures, but a CNA is just as important for the overall care of a patient.

"A CNA helps bathe the patients, clean beds and just basically offer patients more personal care," Thygeson said. "They can't give medicine or give an IV to someone."

Thygeson has a job offer already, and she may accept it until she goes off to college this fall. That is something she can't wait for.

"I'm totally ready for nursing school now," Thygeson said.