Nurses Get Award for Saving Life at Disney World

It was like a scene from Charlie’s Angels or any other “girl-power” movie. Three nurses from Fort Myers were on a girls’ trip to Walt Disney World Resort when they suddenly needed to swing into action to save an old man’s life, and now their heroic actions are being rewarded.

One year ago, sisters Kristin Barlow and Cassie Kaspar and their friend Jennifer De Leon were visiting Disney World for–appropriately enough–the 2022 runDisney Princess Marathon Weekend when, like many other first responders we have highlighted in the past, they had to put the vacation on pause and jump into action.

Related: Firefighter Saves Life on Disney World Vacation

According to a Ft. Myers, Florida NBC-affiliate station, NBC2, the Lee County nurses were concluding a magical day at Magic Kingdom Park with a ferry ride when screams alerted them to a man who collapsed in cardiac arrest. The trio sprang into action, applying CPR, and kept him alive long enough for local paramedics to get him to the hospital. Turns out, that man survived. In a remarkable turn of events, a Facebook post remembering the event reconnected the trio to the man they saved. Grandfather John Cerar believes that thanks to the fast work of these “three angels,” he is alive today.

Barlow and Casper (sisters) shared that they had been on the other side of the near-tragic event when their grandmother collapsed and was saved by a bystander jumping into action.

Here’s the full story from NBC2:

 

The three nurses were honored at Lee Health’s quarterly leadership forum with an American Red Cross Lifesaving Award. Hundreds of people gathered at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Center and gave the women a standing ovation, and Cerar was able to attend via Zoom, saying, “You’ll always be in my thoughts and prayers and within me because of what you guys did for me.”

Be sure to thank another registered nurse and nurse practitioner for yourself, especially during National Nurses Week, May 1 – 7.