Saving Someone’s Life on the Way to Planning Her Life
How a high-school student’s training at school led to a life-saving moment and a career decision
Izzi Cobb saved someone’s life. But the 17-year-old high school senior doesn’t like to make a big deal of it.
Just after winter break last year, Cobb was working at an assisted living facility through a Fort Osage School District program that allows her to earn her certified nursing assistant (CNA) certificate while she’s still in school.
“We were checking in a new patient,” Cobb said. “He was very frail, very lightweight, and nonverbal. The first thing we did was get him something to eat — he requested some cream of wheat. Not long after he started to eat, he pushed all of his food away, got very pale, and had a faint heartbeat. Another student and I realized he was coding (in cardiac arrest). I trained for this, but this was a lot different than training.”
Cobb’s training came from the Career and Innovation Center (CIC) at Fort Osage High School, and she quickly put her training from school to work.
While the other student alerted the nurses on duty, Cobb began to give her patient CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Other nurses came in and continued to provide CPR until emergency medical technicians arrived and transported the patient to the hospital, where he eventually recovered.
“It felt like three minutes,” Cobb said, “but it was really like 10 or 15.”
The attention that Cobb got for this made her a little uncomfortable.
“I’m grateful I got to do that, but there are a lot of people out there who do it every day,” she said. “I’m not much for attention. I want to be humble and love and help people every day. I would certainly want someone to be there to help my grandpa if he needed it.”
While Cobb, who also runs track and plays softball, had an inkling about becoming a nurse, her passion to help and serve people was something she cemented through the one-year Advanced Health Services course in Fort Osage.
“They have everything,” Cobb said of the CIC. “They just have a bunch of courses that give you the opportunity to see what you’re interested in. You get to find out if you like doing what you think you like, and you also earn college credit.”
In Cobb’s case, the CNA path allowed her to confirm that the medical field was the one she wanted to follow.
“I didn’t know if I wanted to be a surgical tech, a pharmacist, or a nurse,” she said. “The courses I took opened up everything for me to see. It’s not just classwork. You’re doing college-level work there. You actually get to see what you would have to do.”
The experience with saving someone’s life helped her finalize her decision.
“After the patient was brought to the hospital someone asked me if I still wanted to be a nurse,” Cobb said. “And I said, ‘Yeah. This is what I want to do.’”
Cobb not only earned her CNA certification, she also earned five college credits toward a nursing degree, and she earned a $10,000 yearly scholarship through KC Scholars, which she will use to attend the University of Central Missouri starting in the fall of 2024.