A recent Cedar Crest College graduate did not have to wait long to put her training to use.
Amanda Howard graduated from the Allentown school Saturday with a doctorate in nurse anesthesia. Hours later, she was performing CPR on a chef at a Philadelphia restaurant.
Howard was celebrating her accomplishment at the restaurant when a waitress ran in, asking if anyone was a doctor, according to a Cedar Crest College news release.
Howard went into the kitchen and saw the chef, who was turning blue and did not have a pulse, on the ground. Howard performed CPR, and the chef regained a pulse after about two minutes.
“It’s something we do every day, but it is very different to do it on the day that you’re celebrating yourself,” she told 6 ABC in an interview.
When she returned, she continued the celebration, now partially covered in pasta sauce from the CPR she just performed.
“I’m truly grateful for the anesthesia faculty and the crisis recourse management simulations we just went over this past month [at Cedar Crest College]” Howard said in the release. “The knowledge I gained from those experiences went into real life practice.”
The college said her actions show the best qualities of a future CRNA, including professionalism, compassion and acting quickly in a crisis.