Biology student’s quick response saves a life
During a BIOL 119 hospital shift, Neha Varrier did CPR on a patient until help arrived.
Neha Varrier was in the middle of a shift as a patient sitter at N.C. Memorial Hospital in October when she heard a jarring thump in the adjoining room.
“I wasn’t sure what to do at first,” said Varrier, a sophomore majoring in quantitative biology. “As a patient sitter, you’re told to never leave your patient alone. But I could tell something wasn’t right. I didn’t hear anyone else running into the other room, so I went to peek in around the corner.”
Varrier found a patient on the floor, unresponsive.
It’s a situation most students in BIOL 119, an experiential service course piloted this fall, don’t expect to face.
The course is designed to help meet the overwhelming need for patient sitters — staff who sit with patients who require dedicated supervision. A collaboration among the Office of Health Professions Advising in the Office of the Provost, Ingram Institute at UNC Health, biology department and School of Nursing, BIOL 119 provides required training, certifications and experience working four-hour shifts. The 26 students in the course also attend class to discuss their experiences with faculty and peers each week.
Although all BIOL 119 students are certified in CPR, they aren’t likely to need to use lifesaving measures on a patient, especially one not under their care — the situation Varrier faced.
When she found the patient unconscious on the floor, Varrier admits she felt her mind go blank.
“I get recertified every year. I teach CPR to students in the community,” said Varrier, who is co-president of HeartSafe, an organization that provides free CPR and first-aid training classes. “But the moment you actually see someone on the ground, it almost all vanishes from your head.”
Her training kicked in quickly, though. Varrier hit the code blue button, checked for a pulse and began CPR. She was doing chest compressions alone until an emergency response team arrived.
“I was in shock by what had just happened,” she added. “I’m trained to do this. But nobody expects to go to a shift as a patient sitter and do CPR on another patient. I just was sitting there thinking, ‘Did I do it right? What if what I did wasn’t enough?’”
Varrier completed the rest of her shift and shared the experience with her professors, Dr. Jennifer Alderman and health professions adviser Amy Oyos-Yatrofsky, at her next class.
“They were able to give me the comfort that I really needed,” she said. “I also wrote about what happened, which is a technique I learned from this class to cope with some of the things that we go through during our shifts.”
A few weeks later, Varrier returned for a shift to the same floor where she had done CPR. One of the on-duty nurses told her that the patient had lived, thanks to Varrier’s efforts.
“I was holding onto this burden that would have never gone away if I didn’t hear that,” said Varrier. “But it also brought me confidence to know I can do something like that, and I’ve learned so much in the process.”
On Nov. 4, UNC Health’s nursing program honored Varrier for her heroic actions at a ceremony where she was presented with a challenge coin for her bravery and advocacy for patient care.
Varrier plans to serve as the teaching assistant for BIOL 119 in the spring, when the course will expand to accept more than twice the number of students from the pilot. She also knows how impactful this experience will be as she looks ahead to applying to medical school, and eventually, she hopes, to working in emergency medicine.
