Senior nursing major helps diabetic worker

By Erin Brodbeck
Collegian Editor
November 8, 2006

The only thing Vinnie Caputo, a senior nursing major at La Salle, was expecting to encounter at Treetops Café this past Saturday was a quiet meal with her roommates. What actually happened was a bit more out of the ordinary.

On Nov. 4 around noon, one of Caputo’s roommates came to the table she was eating lunch at to tell her that one of the workers in the dining hall appeared to be collapsing.

“I just sat there for a minute,” Caputo said. “But because I’m kind of a nosy person, I went to get a soda and peek around the corner to see what was going on.”

Caputo could tell that something was wrong with the worker as soon as she saw her.

“I just had a feeling, and my instincts told me to go help,” she said.

Since none of the other workers seemed to know what to do for their fellow employee, a weekend staff member named Cindy Patterson-Hudson, Caputo got the woman some cranberry juice.

“She was showing signs of hypoglycemia,” Caputo said. “All I could think of was all those times my teachers pounded this information into my head.”

After Patterson-Hudson had drank some of the cranberry juice Caputo gave her, she become more lucid, and was able to tell her that she had Type-2 diabetes.

“People with Type-2 take oral medication before a meal,” Caputo said.

It was clear to Caputo that Patterson-Hudson had either skipped the medication, the meal or both.

Workers notified Treetops Supervisor Patrick Kirlin of what was going on, and he immediately called Security, who told him to get an ambulance for the worker.

Patterson-Hudson was taken to Einstein Medical Center, where she received proper treatment for low blood sugar. She even came back to Treetops later that same afternoon to let her employees know that she was all right.

“It was a little bit of a scare,” Kirlin said of the incident. “But it was good thing Vinnie was there, because none of us were sure what to do.”

Caputo hopes to work in pediatric oncology after she graduates, and is currently doing clinicals, a nursing requirement in which students get experience working in a hospital. Being able to put into practice the skills she has learned in her classes during a real life emergency at Treetops was an affirming experience for Caputo.

“I’m glad I’m learning something at school,” she said.

brodbecke1@lasalle.edu