The Tribune

A RECENT act of kindness and a measure of perfect timing collided, resulting in a life being saved.

Monique O’Kelleher, born in Marsh Harbour, was just leaving work when she saw Doctors Hospital ICU Nurse Bernardita Cordova, known affectionately as “Bernie”, waving her hands hysterically in the middle of Collins Avenue south.

“I thought she was running from somebody. I thought somebody was attacking her and she wanted to get away,” Ms O’Kelleher recalled.

Rather than speeding away from what she thought could have been a dangerous situation, she stopped the car and Ms Cordova managed to get in.

It turned out that the nurse was having a massive asthma attack.

“And then she said ‘doctor’, but she could hardly talk. And I immediately went into panic mode; I went over the hill instead of coming to the hospital, because I was thinking ‘Collins Avenue, quickest doctor’. Luckily she was coherent enough to say ‘no, Doctors Hospital’. She grabbed me from behind and I said ‘OK, no problem’ and I put on my hazards and went straight through traffic,” Ms O’Kelleher said.

Not only was Ms Cordova’s life saved by the selfless act of a complete stranger, but her belongings that had been left in the car were later returned.

“She is so lucky, because I had given some people a ride home and her stuff was right in the back and I had no idea until she had called and asked me to see if her stuff was under my seat.”

She described it as such a miracle, as she had given about eight people a ride since that day.

Ms Cordova, who at the time of her asthma attack was cleaning an apartment, proceeded to call her husband to inform him about what was happening to her. “I had already used my nebuliser twice and when I called my husband, he told me to take a rest and then go home.”

Soon after, Ms Cordova realised that the rest wasn’t helping and that she needed to get out, find her landlord and ask to be dropped to the hospital. But the landlord was not there.

“I was rushing and I came out of the gate and I was waving in the middle of the road. Then when she stopped, all I can remember is that I told her to drop me to Doctors Hospital. After that all I remember is when the doctor told me that he was going to intubate me. They took a couple of pictures of me and when I looked at them, I couldn’t even recognise myself.”

The nurse went into respiratory arrest not long after Ms O’Kelleher had got her to the hospital and then she went into respiratory failure.

Doctors Hospital nurse Cherry Martin-Knowles, who knows and has worked closely with Ms Cordova was part of the code team and says she didn’t immediately recognise her friend and colleague because of how blue and swollen she was.

“I was helping (a doctor) incubate her and it wasn’t until he said ‘do you have any medical information on Bernie,’ did I realise who was on the table,” she says. “I was fine until I knew it was her.”

The nurse is recovering well thanks to the quick action of the team at Doctors Hospital Emergency Room and, of course, the help she received from a stranger who happened to be driving by.

“I am so thankful that there are still good people out there. And I’m so thankful for my Doctors Hospital family for helping me,” she said.