‘We brought him back to life’ – nurse recounts life-saving moment

“We saved him from death. It took us 15 minutes.”

These are the words of Manasse Nevonga, a registered nurse at the Windhoek Central hospital.

Nevongo and his colleagues managed to save a man from death seven years ago.

This comes as International Nurses’ Day was celebrated on Friday.

Nevonga, who has been a nurse for the past eight years, says this incident has been the highlight of his nursing career thus far.
He says it happened one morning in a hospital ward, when a seemingly healthy man just collapsed.

“There were no signs that this patient was not well – until he crashed onto the floor and we had to rush to save him.

“We had to do chest compressions and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). As nurses we cannot declare a patient dead before a doctor says so,” Nevonga says.

It took them about 15 minutes of CPR for the patient to come back to life, he says.

“It was not easy at all . . . When you do CPR you should not panic at all, because if you panic, you may not be successful,” he says.

“You need to be positive as well, because you are trying to save a life. If you get emotional you will not be successful,” he says.

“We were a group of nurses, and we had to do our best to save this man. This is one of the proudest moments for me as a nurse and for every nurse out there.

“We are there to save lives, and we will continue rendering our best services to the best of our abilities,” Nevongo says.

He says after the patient was revived, he was very thankful for what the team did.

“One of the family members also appreciated us with flowers.” Nevonga says being a nurse is about passion “and not about you wanting money”.

“I am motivated to be a nurse by those who were doing it when I was doing my practicals those years,” he says.

“It’s about improving one’s health and keeping the public healthy.

“I feel as a nurse I may also be motivating someone out there to become one.” Nevonga said.