Even though Courtney Donlon has been a nurse for less than a year, her training kicked in Monday while on a flight from Florida to New Jersey.
According to USA Today, Ms. Donlon, who graduated from nursing school in 2016 and started working at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., in September, snapped into action when a fellow passenger experienced a heart attack on the plane.
Ms. Donlon kept the woman calm, had the flight attendants find aspirin from other passengers and convinced the pilot to make an emergency landing. She even accompanied the woman onto the tarmac.
Ms. Donlon told the paper, "This was not what I expected, but I thank God I was in the right place at the right time and there was someone that could get her help. And because of my background here at Robert Wood Johnson, I felt very confident and comfortable to step up and take control of the situation even though I'm a relatively new nurse."
She admitted she was "nervous at first being on a plane with limited supplies, but once I realized I was the most qualified person on the plane and someone had to be the confident one, then I could take on the role pretty easily."