Camp Avenue nurse saves co-worker's life

Mari Titterton is a nurse by profession, and every year she goes through the same cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillator training to renew a certification. Her years of preparation proved crucial in a matter of moments last Thursday afternoon.

That was when a veteran aide at Camp Avenue Elementary School collapsed in an upstairs hallway, right after escorting children back from recess to their classroom. In later interviews, Titterton and Camp Avenue Principal Ronald Reinken detailed the nerve-racking events that followed.

Co-workers immediately dialed 911 and called downstairs to the school’s main office. Seconds later, a main office staff member burst into the nurse’s office across the hall.

Titterton told Susan Heaphy, a substitute nurse there for the lunch hour, to grab her cell phone and the AED, which hung next to the office’s door. Then Titterton, who takes part yearly in Robbie’s Run, the Merrick 5K that raises money for AED and CPR equipment and education, sprinted upstairs.

The 16-year Camp Avenue aide, whom school officials declined to name for privacy reasons, was on the floor, unconscious and not breathing. Titterton could not find a pulse.

“You kind of just go on autopilot — don’t think about it, go into action,” Titterton said.

She began CPR, completing two rounds of chest compressions and breaths before Heaphy, who arrived with the AED open and its electrode pads at the ready, handed her the device. Titterton delivered a single jolt to the aide’s chest. Still, the woman had no pulse, so Titterton began another round of CPR. Her colleague regained consciousness.

North Merrick Fire Department emergency responders soon arrived and took over the aide’s treatment. James Rogers, the department’s first assistant chief, said last Friday that North Merrick paramedics gave her oxygen and an IV before taking her by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where she was recuperating.