Two nurses jumped into action after witnessing a highway crash involving several teenagers on their way to prom. Thanks to their quick thinking and professional skills, the teens are alive.
The crash occurred on Saturday night when Ariez Dominguez, a 15-year-old Milford High School sophomore, and a teenage female friend were driving in a three-wheeled vehicle on Interstate 275.
The teens were on their way to prom, but their evening ended prematurely. The vehicle “oversteered itself” when Dominguez was changing lanes, causing him to lose control and crash into a wall, according to a family member.
Nadia Bolger, a nurse at Bethesda North, and Meredith Gregory, a travel nurse, were en route to a cancer fundraiser when they came across an accident and stopped to help the critically injured teens who were still fully dressed for prom.
Dominguez was ejected from the vehicle and EMS had not yet arrived.
“When I parked, Nadia took off in one direction,” said Gregory. “I took off in another, because he was pretty far down the highway from where the motorcycle was. […]He was not breathing and did not have a pulse, so she initiated CPR.”
Bolger administered CPR and was able to revive the teen’s pulse.
“He did begin to breathe again,” she said tearing up. “Sorry… It was just so very hard because they’re very young.”
Gregory stated that the teenage girl was not breathing at first and had what appeared to be a skull fracture. He also mentioned that she had a pulse.
“I told her, like, ‘You’re gonna be ok, please don’t move… You’ve been in a car accident,’” Gregory recalled.
“I took care of them the same way I would take care of my own child,” Bolger said, adding this message for the Dominguez family: “That we’re with them and that I did say a prayer for their son before I initiated compressions on him.”
The teenage girl who was involved in the car accident with Mr. Dominguez has been released from the hospital. Mr. Dominguez remains in a coma and his family has turned to prayers. They held a vigil for him on Tuesday.
Said one friend of Dominguez at the vigil, “He’s such a good person, such a hard worker, and he’s the last person who deserves this.”
Another offered, “He’s going to pull through. We all got to stay strong and just keep praying.”
The nurses who were involved in the incident say that they were just doing their job and don’t want recognition. They want to remind others that anyone could receive CPR training.
“If CPR is started immediately when someone had a cardiac arrest, their chances of survival are two-to-three times what they would be if nobody does anything at all,” Bolger said.
