BEING
HONORED — PEF Division 320 Council Leader Peter Banks poses with a plaque
presented to him for helping to save the life of a nine-year-old boy. At left is
David R. Smith, president, University Hospital; and Phillip S. Schaengold,
senior vice-president and CEO, and Katie Mooney, chief nursing officer, are at
right.
Quick response by PEF nurse saves child
By DEBORAH A. MILES
When PEF Division 320 Council Leader Peter Banks left PEF’s Albany headquarters
after a meeting on May 3, he had no idea he would become a hero to a
nine-year-old boy that same afternoon.
Banks returned to Syracuse where he works as a teaching and research center
nurse at SUNY Upstate Medical University Hospital. On his way home, he saw
Christian Ortiz run across the street, nearing a playground, when a sport
utility vehicle struck the boy.
“He was obscured from the view of the oncoming traffic,” Banks said. “Then an
SUV came up, hit him and literally sent him flying.
“When I got to him, he was bleeding profusely and he actually stopped breathing.
There was no pulse. My background is pediatric recovery, so I was able to
initiate CPR, mouth-to-mouth breathing. A nurse from the local Veterans Affairs
came along and helped me do chest compressions. We finally got a pulse back,
then the breathing back. He did phase in and out.
“In a hospital situation you are used to reaching up for an ambu bag (to aid
respiration). All the equipment is there for an emergency. Out on the street,
there is nothing,” Banks said. “What’s vital, when something like this happens,
is to stimulate the victim quickly. I was just at the right place at the right
time.”
An ambulance arrived about 10 minutes later, and Ortiz was transported to the
pediatric emergency room at Upstate Medical.
“For the moment, the hospital has the only pediatric emergency room and Level 1
trauma center in the area. I don’t know if we will have these units after the
Berger Commission recommendations go into effect,” Banks said.
Ortiz remained in the intensive care unit for a few days because of his head
injury, but has since been released from the hospital and is “doing well.”
Banks is also a nursing captain in the British Army Reserve and served in a
field hospital in Basra, Iraq, from February to June 2003. His family has lived
in the U.S. since 1995.
“When something like this accident happens, you basically go into an automatic
mode. You don’t think about it. This experience has touched me, because my wife
is pregnant with our first child. You realize just how fragile life can be.”w
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July/August 07
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