Mission High School senior, Rosalin Saenz, is a student by day and a life-saving Certified Nursing Assistant by night. She has been working part-time for the last six months at an elderly care facility. One night while at the facility in conducting her rounds, she didn’t know she would be saving someone’s life.
She mostly works the weekend grave-yard shift and has a list of responsibilities she must carry out while she is on shift. A typical day includes conducting her rounds every two hours of blood pressure and heart rate checks, monitoring the patient’s breathing, assessing that nothing is off about a patient, making sure that bruises and cuts are not unusual. She also must do walk-throughs which consists of repositioning patients in their beds, making sure they aren’t getting up without assistance, and helping if they need anything.
“I was working the night shift and had already finished my rounds when I proceeded to do my walk-throughs. This is when I had a feeling about a patient and when I got closer, realized she wasn’t breathing,” said Saenz. “I started to do chest compressions and calling out to the others on shift to get their assistance. I was able to bring her back and they took the patient to the hospital for tests and observation.”
After the initial adrenaline wore off, this is when she realized that saving a life was remarkable. She states that being able to help someone is such an incredible feeling and only reassured her of her interest and love of the medical field.
“Oh, my gosh, I just saved a person’s life, and that only reaffirmed that my future is in the medical field,” said Saenz. “It was a great feeling to know that I was able to do something for someone without expecting anything in return. I was happy that I could be there to do that.”
Days later, the patient’s daughter called the facility to thank the individual that had saved her mother’s life and wanted them to let Rosalin know that she was grateful for what she did. The daughter stated that she was happy that her mom was able to spend the holidays with the rest of the family.
Rosalin would like to pursue her registered nursing degree at Sam Houston State University and then work to gain experience. Her ultimate goal is to work as a trauma nurse in the emergency room of a large hospital. She feels that her quick thinking on her feet could only help her in highly stressful and intense situations that occur in the emergency room.