'Flying nurse' helped save 74-year-old
| • | Striking nurses at Queen's, Kuakini resume talks |
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
The woman who saved a 74-year-old man's life by giving first aid when he was dragged unconscious from the waters of Waikiki Sunday remains anonymous today because she is one of the "flying nurses" replacing nurses striking at The Queen's Medical Center.
But the Honolulu Fire Department still hopes to honor the "angel of mercy" who performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Richard Glendon of Kane'ohe after he was found floundering in waist-deep water off Waikiki.
And there is a second angel — Lisa Michelle Samalino of 'Ewa, who ran into the water in her street clothes and dragged Glendon out when she saw him in trouble.
Glendon, reached yesterday before he was to be released from Straub Clinic & Hospital, said he blacked out when he was in the water and had no idea what happened after that.
"But I know those women saved my life," he said.
HFD Capt. Richard Soo said the nurse performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation without using any material between her mouth and that of the victim — a standard precaution.
"So she really was willing to put her own well-being aside to try to help another person," Soo said.
The woman walked away from the scene before anyone could identify her.
Samalino's proud mother, Alicia Nishimiya of Pu'unui, called The Advertiser to identify her daughter as the first angel on the scene.
Samalino, a warehouse supervisor at Sam's Club, said yesterday she was watching Glendon because he was talking to some of the children in her extended family who were playing in the water.
"He seemed to be walking very, very slow, and then all of a sudden he was in the water with his arms waving fast, and I thought how strange that he would try to swim so fast when he was walking so slow," Samalino said.
But when she realized the man was in trouble, she dashed into the water and pulled him to the beach. Then "a woman ran up and said, 'I'm a nurse, I'm a nurse, I can give him CPR,' " Samalino said.
The Queen's Medical Center said yesterday it regretted it could not comment about the nurse because of restrictions in the contract for the visiting nurses which assures that their names and places of residence will not be revealed.
