Two nurses with ties to Geary Community Hospital will be recognized at Saturday’s K-state vs. Oklahoma State basketball game.

On November 23rd Linda Patterson, of Dwight who is an LPN in Dr. Tom Craigs office at GCH, and her daughter Danielle Patterson, of Topeka, were attending the K-State vs. Oklahoma football game in Manhattan when a man near them, Robert Bridgham, suffered a heart attack and went into cardiac arrest.

Danielle, a registered nurse at Stormont Vail Regional Medical Center in Topeka and former employee of GCH, told JCpost.com that she saw the man fall back in his seat towards the end of the pre-game ceremony, “Everyone was calling for a physician and I went over and told them I was an ICU nurse.”

At first Danielle said that she thought Bridgham was having trouble breathing due to the cold weather and he had several layers of clothes on.

“I pulled his clothes away from his neck to see if that would help him and he took one breath and that was all he took.”

With the assistance from some other people in the crowd they laid Bridgman down on the bleacher and with the help of another nurse in the crowd they began administering CPR.

The whole time Danielle was taking care of Bridgman, Linda was on the phone with 911 explaining what was happening and directing EMS to their location in section 11 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Linda said that the whole time she was on the phone she was praying the dispatcher didn’t think she was a prank caller,”they were having kick off at that time and Oklahoma also made their first touchdown and the roar from 52,000 people was so loud that I could hardly hear myself think, let alone talk to a dispatcher.”

Danielle estimated that it took probably ten minutes for EMS to arrive. Bridgham was rushed to Mercy Regional Hospital in Manhattan. He suffered the cardiac arrest due to an occlusion of his right coronary artery and is alive and well today.

The Patterson’s and Bridgham, who have never officially met, will finally get that opportunity Saturday during a private reception at K-State. They will then be recognized during half time of K-State’s conference opener at Bramlage Coliseum.