Just cherish life for what you’ve been given. It’s precious, and I didn’t realize how precious it was until I nearly lost it.
Andy Hoang, RNA November training session at Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) quickly took a real-life turn when a participant went into cardiac arrest. Andy Honag, RN, a 23-year-old nurse resident who joined DHMC in the spring, was in the Patient Safety Training Center, learning to respond to patients suffering cardiac arrest, when she began to feel lightheaded and asked to sit down.
“That’s the last thing I remember,” Hoang told Associated Press reporter Kathy McCormack in an interview. “I woke up to a room full of doctors and nurses.”
Her colleagues sprang into action, performing chest compressions and connecting her to oxygen and an IV. Thanks to their quick actions and training, Andy survived and is recovering. You can read the full AP story about the frightening ordeal and happy ending here.
“It really changed my perspective on how I view life, like ‘Hug your family a little longer,’” Hoang said. “Tell them that you love them, because it might be the last time you get to say it to them. And just cherish life for what you’ve been given. It’s precious, and I didn’t realize how precious it was until I nearly lost it.”
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.