A LIFE-CHANGING DAY

On October 15, 2018, writer and speaker Michael Anthony Steele started a week-long tour of Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD with a reading at Santos Livas Elementary School. The plan was to perform two shows for the elementary school students, reading from his latest children’s book. A professional writer since 1995, Steele has written more than 150 children’s books and visited around 400 schools and libraries across the U.S. This event would have been no different, had his heart not started racing during the first show.

Still, he continued on, and managed to sign some books between the shows, and even finish performing his second. It wasn’t until his visit to the nurse’s office, just to lie down, that the day took a drastic turn.

“I was told my heart stopped,” said Steele, of the events that occurred after he lost consciousness in the nurse’s office. “Jessica and her team saved my life.”

Jessica Ramos, TNA member, school nurse, and former emergency room charge nurse, leapt into action when it became clear that Steele was experiencing a cardiac emergency.

QUICK ACTION

For a decade, Steele had experienced tachycardia, and often thought it was due to stress. He would lie down, take deep breaths, and wait for the moment to pass. “I had a full heart work-up and everything was great.” The way he puts it: “The plumbing was great, but not the electrical.”

Ramos called 911 quickly upon noticing that the author’s state was deteriorating. With the assistance of the school’s Emergency Response Team, made up of staff members who are trained to assist in physical or mental health emergencies, she performed CPR and they used an AED to shock his heart back into motion. This quick action made all the difference.

“I woke up in the ambulance (never a good thing), but it was comforting to see Jessica riding along.” He spent a week in the hospital and ended up getting an ICD implanted. Later, a cardiac ablation took care of the underlying problem.

Thanks to Jessica Ramos, tragedy was avoided. In fact, Steele went back to the school for a visit and was surprised in the library by the entire staff and district superintendent. (He considered clutching his chest in surprise as a joke, but decided he had already frightened everyone enough the last time he was there.) Ramos even gave him a shirt like the one he’d been wearing the last time he was there, one of his favorites—and one that had been cut off in order to provide quick treatment.