It was a warm summer day in 2006 like many others in Rockledge, and Paul Duerling responded to a complaint of a squeaky bed in a patient room at Wuesthoff Medical Center. The patient in the room, a woman in her sixties, had been moved to a chair to eat her lunch while Paul worked to remedy the bed's annoying squeak.

Paul is a jack-of-all-trades who works as a maintenance technician at the hospital. He handles the "small stuff" such as routine plumbing and electrical jobs like changing light bulbs and unclogging sinks. He recalled, "This was a day like any other."

Just a regular day, fixing a squeak, until . . . with his back to the patient, he began to hear hoarse breathing, like someone struggling to get air. He spun around and saw the patient slumped forward, no longer awake. Her breaths were labored and erratic. Paul ran out of the room to find a nurse, reporting, "I believe the patient is unconscious."

After determining that the woman was unresponsive, the nursing manager, Sudandra Ratnasamy, was called to the room. A Code Blue was issued.

"The woman started to seize, but Paul wasn't afraid of the situation," Sudandra said. "He stayed right with us and helped prevent the patient from falling out of the chair. She would have likely hit the floor and could have struck her head. He was very helpful to us, too, when we had to move the patient back into the bed to administer care."

"I got behind the patient and helped lift her using a bear hug," Paul said. "We laid her in bed and I asked for authorization to hook up the oxygen and how many liters to turn the dial to."

"Paul was doing his job in one way by fixing the bed," Sudandra said, "but he was also alert to the patient's needs and his quick response may have saved the patient." The woman regained consciousness after oxygen had been given and the Code Blue wasn't needed. She eventually went home. "Paul works with patient safety in mind all the time," Sudandra said. "Ultimately, we are all here for our patients and working to improve their outcomes is in our hearts."

"I have patient empathy," Paul said. "Helping out nurses and patients when needed is what I'm here for—in addition to repairing things. We work in a Loving Care environment at Wuesthoff because we love people and we treat patients and visitors like members of our own family. My parents taught me that you love everybody as you want to be loved."