The family of Tommy Florentino is looking for the unidentified nurse who saved his life. The man said the provider came out of nowhere to stabilize him after he collapsed on the dashboard of his car. He still isn’t sure who she is or where she came from, but he says he will be grateful to her for the rest of his life.
Florentino had just visited the local Home Depot with his brother near their home in Boston when he fell unconscious while waiting for a red light outside of a Walmart. A police officer and the unidentified nurse noticed and began performing CPR until the authorities could arrive.
“She’s an angel on our shoulders,” said Tommy’s brother Elmer Florentino. “She came out of nowhere to help.”
The men were on their way to a friend’s house when the incident happened. “The back of my hand slapped him in the face and he didn’t respond,” Elmer Florentino said. “I immediately pulled over.”
Elmer then called 9-1-1 and told the dispatcher his brother was unconscious.
“Someone up in heaven was watching out for him,” Lisa Paradis, who was waiting for the Florentino brothers to arrive, told local reporters. “Everything just connected.”
After the police officer started doing CPR, Elmer said a woman walked over and identified herself as a nurse. “She said, ‘I’m a registered nurse. Can I help?'” Elmer Florentino recalled. She took over and prevented Tommy from seizing until the paramedics showed up.
“Nobody knows who she is or where she came from,” Lisa Paradis said. “She left in the commotion of them getting in the ambulance because the EMT’s were still doing CPR on him … and they just didn’t get her name.”
Tommy Florentino was later admitted to a local hospital and regained consciousness shortly after arriving. He said he has no memory of what happened after he left the hardware store with his brother. The 63-year-old remains stable but remains under medical supervision.
Elmer said his brother is “doing great” with no signs of seizures but the doctors still aren’t sure what caused the incident.