Jennie Love
Infection Control Practitioner, RN
Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa, Mason City

Traffic was unusually heavy and stop lights showed no mercy when Jennie Love headed home later than usual one summer evening.  Almost home but stopped once again, she was suddenly jolted by a car slamming into her vehicle’s rear bumper. 

The stoplight turned green just then, so she pulled around the corner and stopped by the curb.  As the young man driving the other car pulled passed Jennie’s car, Jennie saw he seemed more than a little upset, even though there was little damage to either vehicle.  When she approached his car to talk things over, Jennie discovered the young driver was not able to speak much more than an incomprehensible mumble and was having trouble breathing.

That’s when years of nurse’s training and practice kicked in.  Jennie asked him if he was choking and he nodded yes. As she helped him out of the car, his breathing stopped completely, so she performed the Heimlich maneuver as she yelled to a bystander to call 911.  Fortunately, Jennie was able to dislodge the food that was obstructing the young man’s airway.  In a few moments, he was breathing and then talking when paramedics arrived.

Now Jennie learned this was no accident. About a block before the accident, the other driver began choking on a piece of food.  In desperation, he purposely drove into Jennie’s car to get her attention.

“I believe that it was God’s plan that I was delayed that evening at work and that the stoplight turned red just before I got to it,” Jennie says,  “I also believe that with all of the traffic right then that God led this young man to hit my car, someone who had been trained in what to do.”

Jennie has since learned from the young man’s mother that he is enrolled in college – to become a nurse.