Trentin Sheehan, RRT, is proud to be the recipient of this quarter's Bravo! President's Award, but despite it being among the highest honor an SBL employee can receive, he's not letting it go to his head.
“It was pretty humbling,” Trentin said.
Trentin was nominated and chosen for the award based on his actions at a crash site. He was on his way to work during a foggy morning, and he came upon a crash on Illinois Route 16, not far from the hospital.
A car ran into the back of a semi-truck, and the driver of the car needed first aid. Trentin was the first one to arrive on the scene, and he immediately sprang into action.
He checked both the driver of the car and the truck driver. The truck driver didn’t require any first aid, but the car driver did.
After getting the car door opened and reaching the driver, he provided basic life support, he said.
At first, the patient was responsive when Trentin first got to her, but after a bit, she became unresponsive. At one point, Trentin thought he lost a pulse and would have to do CPR, but he felt the pulse again.
He continued to provide first aid until EMS arrived, when they were able to provide more aid for her wounds.
“It was very humbling to get the award for doing that, but also at the same time, I feel like there’s a couple other people that stopped, who I want to show appreciation for too,” Trentin explained.
The whole experience was surreal for Trentin. It's something he's trained for, but when it happens out of nowhere, it can be shocking.
“I'd probably say that’s one of the craziest things that's happened to me so far,” he said. “There’s been other cases (at the hospital) that have been a little on the crazy side, but I would say coming to work, there's a different atmosphere outside of (the hospital).”
He continued, “Just coming up to it, you got to think a little bit differently on the outside, rather than having everything here at my disposal. It’s just a different atmosphere, having to wait for the ambulance and everybody to get there.”
While Trentin is humbled by the nomination and award, it is still exciting to be recognized in such a way, he added.
He did, however, want to give the proper recognition to some other SBL staff who stopped to help him that day.
Those staff members are Reba Fritz, RN, 4 Medical, Lindsay Lucy, RN, PACU, and Chris Booker, RN, PACU.