{"id":5832,"date":"2023-04-18T19:10:43","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T19:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=5832"},"modified":"2023-04-19T06:47:13","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T06:47:13","slug":"navy-nurse-corps-officer-responds-to-medical-emergency-on-grounded-ferry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=5832","title":{"rendered":"Navy Nurse Corps Officer Responds to Medical Emergency on Grounded Ferry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Staying afloat and rendering support\u2026 Lt. Holly Sapien, Navy Nurse Corps officer assigned to Naval Hospital Bremerton (second from left), along with husband Musician 1st Class Michael Sapien (far right), Lt. j.g. Randy Le, Naval Hospital Bremerton registered dietitian (left) and Musician 3rd Class John Landis (back) pause for a selfie moment onboard the Bremerton to Seattle ferry Walla Walla after it ran aground on Bainbridge Island, April 15, 2023, due to power loss. During that time, Sapien responded to a medical emergency, taking the lead in stabilizing another passenger dealing with an epileptic seizure until local fire and rescue personnel could get on board and transport the patient to a local medical facility (Courtesy photo).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Although there were no reported injuries due to the vessel ending up on a Bainbridge Island beachfront, April 15, 2023, there was a medical emergency amongst the approximately 600 passengers on board.<\/p>\n

Sapien, a Navy Nurse Corps officer assigned to Naval Hospital Bremerton, immediately responded to a call for someone needed with medical background.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a passenger having a grand mal seizure,\u201d said Sapien. \u201cI had to get him out of the seat he was in. I had to get him on his side to protect his airway and prevent aspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sapien, an El Paso, Texas native with almost 10-years of Navy experience, had dealt with grand mal seizure conditions before when working at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Virginia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was in a medical environment, with trained medical staff ready to help. This was the first time not in a hospital setting to respond to such an event,\u201d noted Sapien, adding that her training automatically kicked in.<\/p>\n

Her efforts also reinforced teaching the Navy\u2019s Tactical Combat Casualty Care course and holding Basic Life Support training designed to enhance medical readiness in generally austere, combat environments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all take these classes for our professional development but never really know when we\u2019re going to actually use the skills,\u201d stated Sapien.<\/p>\n

Yet respond she did, until turning her patient over to the Bainbridge Fire and Rescue team once they got on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to be there when needed and be able to jump in and help out to give peace of mind to another when there\u2019s no hospital nearby,\u201d said Sapien.<\/p>\n

The routine ferry trip became anything but nearly 30 minutes into the Puget Sound crossing. Lights started to flicker. The steady thrum of the boat\u2019s engine stilled. The vessel was headed towards a beachfront home. \u201cBrace for impact\u201d was announced over the Walla Walla loudspeaker system.<\/p>\n

The ferry reportedly slowly angled into the beach, coming to rest in a soft landing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce grounded, life jackets were passed out if there was a need to abandon ship,\u201d related Sapien. \u201cWe waited around for four or five hours before finally deciding to get off on one of the fast ferries called in to assist.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Staying afloat and rendering support\u2026 Lt. Holly Sapien, Navy Nurse Corps officer assigned to Naval Hospital Bremerton (second from left), along with husband Musician 1st Class Michael Sapien (far right), Lt. j.g. Randy Le, Naval Hospital Bremerton registered dietitian (left) and Musician 3rd Class John Landis (back) pause for a selfie moment onboard the Bremerton […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5832"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5835,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5832\/revisions\/5835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}