Nurse Springs Into Action to Save a Life While Off Duty
By Tramel Garrett, Public Affairs Specialist
She lay motionless on the bathroom floor, her skin a chilling shade of blue. Face down on the cold tile of a Tennessee hotel, blood traced her nose and pooled near a used needle. The locked stall door offered no answers, only silence. Shavonne Smith didn’t hesitate.
“I heard someone yelling that a lady had passed out,” Smith said. “When I got to the bathroom and saw her head under the door, I knew this was life or death.”
Smith, a Registered Nurse and the Acting Nurse Manager of the Emergency Department at the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System (CAVHCS), was out of town for a non-work conference when the emergency occurred. But at that moment, it didn’t matter that she was off duty. Her instincts, her training, and her heart for service took over.
A bystander forced the stall door open. Inside, they found the woman unresponsive. A group of medically trained attendees gathered two nurse practitioners from the VA, a nurse from Tennessee, and Smith.
“We had no equipment. No Narcan. No oxygen. Not even a bag-valve mask,” Smith said. “But we had to act.”
The woman had a pulse, but she wasn’t breathing. They performed a sternal rub. They talked to her, pleaded with her to breathe, and encouraged any kind of response. She gasped, once coughing up debris, but her oxygen level was critically low. They stayed with her until EMS arrived, supporting her airway as best they could.
Thanks to their quick actions, the woman survived.
Smith is no stranger to pressure. In addition to her VA service, she has spent the past ten years as a Flight Nurse in the Air Force Reserve, training for emergency care in the skies and serving wherever the mission takes her.
“My goal was always to be a Flight Nurse,” she said. “Working at CAVHCS, I met several nurses who were Veterans. They encouraged me to serve. I didn’t even realize there were opportunities like this at Maxwell Air Force Base.”
She is a member of the US Air Force Reserves, 908th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, and calls her dual service the best of both worlds.
“What I learn in the Emergency Department, I apply during flight missions. And what I learn in the military helps me better understand and care for Veterans back home,” she said. “They go hand in hand.”
Smith has not heard from the woman she helped save. That doesn’t trouble her. What matters is that she was ready and that her readiness made a difference.
“Whether you’re clinical or not, training matters,” she said. “What you learn here at CAVHCS could save a life one day. Don’t take it for granted.”
She hopes her story reminds her fellow VA employees, especially those who serve Veterans every day, that the work they do and the preparation they undergo is never in vain.
“Emergencies don’t care where you are or what uniform you’re wearing,” she said. “Stay ready, so you don’t have to get ready.”