Cass Regional Medical Center | Wellness Matters | Spring 2019

INSIDE SPRING 2019 2018 Community Benefit Report pg 4 Secrets to better baking pg 7 for your HERE wellness matters health. In the right place at the right time When an off-duty Cass Regional Medical Center emergency nurse was driving southbound along Interstate 49 and saw traffic coming to a stop, she immediately knew something was wrong. “Interestingly enough, all the day shift nurses in the Emergency Department walked out that night and drove south on I-49 to get home,” said Jessica Patterson, RN, BSN. “We all must have gone out the door one after the other. The first nurse missed the accident by a few minutes. I was the third car to come up on the rollover accident.” Patterson is a registered nurse at Cass Regional Medical Center and has worked in the Emergency Department (ED) for more than nine years. Off-duty, but ready to go “As an ER trauma nurse, I felt like I could help assist with providing initial care to help stabilize the patient until EMS or LifeFlight could arrive,” she said. Shortly after Patterson’s arrival on the scene, Samantha Dumas, RN, stopped to help her fellow nurse. “There were about seven cars in front Cass Regional nurses go above and beyond to help accident victim of me completely stopped. It took a few minutes for me to realize it was an accident,” said Dumas, who has worked as a registered nurse in Cass Regional’s ED since early 2018. “At that time, I tried pulling over as much as I could and got out of my car. I then saw Jess already by the patient.” Scott Mathes, firefighter/emergency medical technician, and Terry Smither, firefighter/paramedic, were the first emergency medical services (EMS) personnel to arrive at the accident. “We were dispatched to a serious rollover accident on I-49,” said Mathes. “We arrived with minimal manpower. Jessica Patterson and Samantha Dumas were already on scene providing first aid. We made contact with them, and they asked how they could help us. They assisted us with the patient until the arrival of the LifeFlight crew.” “You never know when something like this might happen.” Samantha Dumas, RN, and Jessica Patterson, RN, BSN, leapt into action when a life was in danger on I-49. —Continued on the back page