STILLWATER, Okla. — Salem Lutheran Church's parish nurse Cindy Pennie is advocating for more volunteers with a medical background to lend a helping hand with the American Red Cross in light of hurricanes hitting the southeast.
Pennie used her 29 years as a labor & delivery nurse at Stillwater Medical Center to render aid last month as a woman inside a shelter suddenly went into cardiac arrest as Hurricane Helene was hitting in Live Oak, Fla.
"It was pretty chaotic," the retired nurse said. "It was a gymnasium full of probably about 400 people."
"I pushed the button. (The AED) shocked her and it said, 'Begin CPR,' and that's what I did, was start hands-only chest compressions."
Pennie was the only nurse on staff with the Red Cross at the shelter. She told 2 News Oct. 9 after returning home she will likely get called back to the area in the next week or two to help with Hurricane Milton, but said the Oklahoma standard isn't just for retired medical providers.
"We need volunteers," she said. "We need nurses or healthcare providers. It can be LPNs, it can be EMTs, paramedics to respond, to help in these situations. If we have more nurses we can have more at each site."
- Previous coverage >>> Broken Arrow man volunteering ahead of Hurricane Milton
Matt Trotter from Tulsa's Red Cross office said those responding aren't just needed out of state, but here at home as well.
"We need local disaster responders for things like house fires," Trotter said. "We need people who can transport blood to hospitals. It really takes all kinds of people to make the Red Cross work."
"And just working in an emergency setting, you just go on automatic pilot," Pennie said. "You know what to do in this situation, and you do what you're supposed to do."
For saving the woman's life during Hurricane Helene, the American Red Cross of Oklahoma said Pennie will soon receive a Red Cross Lifesaver Award.
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