By Bill Carey
EMS1
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A nurse at the Alabama-Missouri game performed CPR on an EMT, all captured on video.
What the video doesn’t show is that just before helping the EMT, Erin Mender had assisted a fan who was also experiencing a medical emergency, WIAT reported.
“We got up to our seats, and I was setting my things down, and this woman behind me just happened to be like ‘Oh my gosh, there’s a medical emergency over there,’ and I said, ‘Do they need a nurse?’” Mender told WIAT.
Mender assisted an EMT in treating a fan with a head injury, helping check vitals and getting the fan to an ambulance. As she went back to her seat another call for help came.
The same EMT Mender had assisted earlier was now the person needing help.
“His eyes started to roll back into his head, and he was falling backward onto someone else,” Mender told WIAT. “And I shook him, and I said, ‘Sir. Sir.’ He was unresponsive. I felt for a pulse. I did not feel one. I yelled out for someone else to feel one. They confirmed, and I looked around, and I said, ‘OK, I’m starting CPR.’”
Mender has performed life-saving procedures before, but always in the controlled setting of a hospital not in an SEC football stadium.
“I remember in that moment everything was so quiet around me, but I know it was so chaotic,” Mender recalled to WIAT. “I remember thinking if I don’t get this person back, where are the EMTs? Where are the AEDs? I don’t know how much longer I can do CPR.”
Moments later, the EMT became responsive. WIAT reported he is doing well and expressed gratitude for Mender stepping in to assist him.
