Nurse Notices Something About Sick Student, Takes Action

A school nurse in Jackson, Tennessee, saved a student’s life after noticing something strange about his vomit and taking immediate action.

Carrie Stephenson, a nurse at West Bemis Middle School, was called to a hallway to help 14-year-old Isaiah Griffin after the boy began vomiting. She immediately noticed the vomit it didn’t look normal. Not only was the vomit suspicious-looking, the boy’s eyes were also rolling back into his head and he was going in and out of consciousness. 

Stephenson was able to get Isaiah to give her his mother’s phone number, and she did her best to keep him awake and alert while she called for an ambulance. She and his teacher, Leann Albert, monitored his vital signs and kept talking to him so he wouldn’t fall asleep.

An ambulance soon arrived, and Isaiah was rushed to the hospital. He was then flown to another facility, where his mother, Deborah Griffin, met him. He was paralyzed on his left side when he arrived.

“I was driving, crying and praying,” the mother told KXTV.

As it turned out, Isaiah had a blood clot and had also suffered from a stroke. He underwent surgery to remove the clot and was given a 50 percent chance of surviving. The surgery was successful, and he soon began to recover. 

Deborah said she credits Stephenson with saving her son’s life, as her instincts told her something was seriously wrong.

“Her thinking and everything she did for him saved his life, I tell you what,” the mother said. “We could’ve been planning a funeral, not planning a celebration.”

Stephenson and her mother, a nurse practitioner, visited Isaiah after the terrifying incident and she asked him if he remembered her.

“You’re the lady that helped me,” he told her. “You grabbed my cheeks and told me I was going to be OK.”

Stephenson said she feels as though she was just doing her job.

“To me it was just the grace of God showing through,” she said. “God was all over that.”

The amazing story quickly went viral, with many praising the teacher’s actions.

“I’m so happy this child will be better…my goodness…having a stroke so young n thankfully where the nurse could call for an ambulance,” one Newsiosity reader wrote on the site’s Facebook page. “GOD bless you all.”

“Nurses are wonderful, l understand, you have that gut feeling sometimes and you just know this sign or symptom is not right l know the Holy Spirit guided me many times in my career blessings to you,” another added. 

Sources: KXTV, Newsiosity/Facebook / Photo credit: The Jackson Sun via KXTV