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Life-Saving Nurse Honored By Her Colleagues

MAHONING TOWNSHIP — Cassie Thomas thought she was just meeting with the media on her lunch break. Instead, the pediatric nurse at Janet Weis Children̵...
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MAHONING TOWNSHIP -- Cassie Thomas thought she was just meeting with the media on her lunch break. Instead, the pediatric nurse at Janet Weis Children's Hospital near Danville got a surprise party from her colleagues. It was her first day back to work after a family vacation in Clearwater, Florida, and what a vacation it was.

"Just as I looked up there was this massive pink lightning bolt that just came down and hit the beach," Thomas said.

Cassie, her husband, and their two daughters were on their hotel balcony last week when they heard and saw the storm. After Cassie saw the lightning, she saw two boys lying on the beach. So, she yelled to them.

"The one boy sat up and he just started yelling back and I said Jay, call 911, I'm going," Thomas said.

So the 31-year-old nurse from Pardeesville, near Hazleton, sprang into action. She ran down 16 flights of stairs onto the beach where she found the two boys, Jansen and Cameron, who are from North Carolina. Cameron had no pulse.

"I rolled Cameron over and I immediately knew and I just started compressing," Thomas said.

Cassie didn't realize it at the time, but she was risking her own life to save the teenage boys.

"My daughters were on the balcony and it was a very dangerous situation to put myself in. I just prayed to keep me safe because I was going," Thomas said.

"It just goes to her character and her passion to help others. And you know what? When it's your kid, you'd want someone to be coming in and saving their life," Kimberly Duffy said.

Cassie was there when Cameron got out of the hospital.

"He just said thank you thank you thank you. He gave me so many hugs," Thomas said.

A nurse never truly goes on vacation.

"I just keep telling everybody the same thing. It's just what you do," Thomas said.

Cassie and two other people got Good Samaritan awards from the Clearwater Police Department for saving Cameron's life. Cassie's colleagues at Geisinger say they couldn`t be any prouder of this life-saving nurse.

 

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