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Nurse showed what a real hero is

Ashley Hanrahan Sunderman is Fort Dodge native

Capes and masks are for comic book heroes. Real heroes don’t need them.

For an example of a real hero, look no farther than Fort Dodge native Ashley Hanrahan Sunderman, a pediatric nurse who was in the right place at the right time to help save the life of a 5-year-old boy who nearly drowned.

Earlier this month, she and her family were at a pool party in Waukee for a baseball team that her son plays on. The Sunderman family was just arriving when someone spotted a dark object in the pool. That object was Bauer Rosenberg.

Sunderman ran to the side of the pool and helped pull the boy out of the water. Then her training as a pediatric nurse kicked in and she immediately started performing CPR.

”I didn’t even think,” Sunderman told The Messenger. ”I just literally reacted.”

No one knows how many rounds of CPR Sunderman performed. But it worked. Rosenberg came to, spit out a bunch of water and announced that he didn’t want to swim anymore. He was conscious when the ambulance arrived. The next day, he was bouncing around his hospital room with all of his usual energy.

”My experience as a nurse is just being in those stressful situations,” Sunderman said. ”Stay focused and calm and try to keep the environment around you calm and in an organized manner. I feel like that’s what we did.”

The pool rescue was different from a day at the hospital, but it displayed Sunderman’s dedication and lifesaving skills in a dramatic way.

Real heroes like her wear nurse’s scrubs. They also wear badges and firefighter gear.

While the caped crusaders of the comics and movies are entertaining, we all should look up to the real heroes.

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