CNA Training Helped Save Congresswoman’s Life

Daniel Hernandez was only five days into his new internship with the office of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords when his former CNA training was needed to help save a life – the life of Rep. Giffords.

Hernandez has known Giffords for years and had helped with her 2008 campaign, so this is someone with whom he has an established emotional tie, a complication which can actually inhibit even a seasoned professional from successfully administering aid in a shocking, emergency situation.

In a televised interview Monday, January 10, 2011, on Fox and Friends (morning show on Fox News), Hernandez recounted that he ran toward Giffords after the shots were fired. He determined that her fallen position put her in danger of asphyxiation, so he repositioned her against his chest. He began to apply pressure to her wound. Her eyes were closed and she was obviously in pain, he stated, but she was able to respond to statements and questions by squeezing his hand, and the hands of others who arrived to help.

In an online article for Fox News written by Kristin Brown, January 9, 2011 [Intern May Have Helped Save Giffords’ Life], Hernandez called Giffords “a fighter.” He told Fox that Giffords was conscious while he was with her and “very responsive” to everything said to her.

According to the article, Hernandez “was able to use his triage knowledge to help Giffords and others who were wounded in her immediate vicinity.” The article also reports that “several officials have credited Hernandez's actions with keeping Giffords alive until paramedics arrived.”

Hernandez stated that he received his Certified Nurse’s Assistant training in high school.

Here is the link to the Fox News report.

http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/01/09/intern-may-have-helped-save-giffords-life