When Alexis Unseth, an RN at SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital - Madison, woke up from what she describes as a nightmare, she didn’t expect it to play out in reality the next day.
“I woke up in my sleep screaming," Unseth said, as she describes the dream she had about Cori Bradley, a fellow nurse in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU). "In the dream, she just collapsed on the ground at work and didn't have a pulse.”
Unseth came in to work the following day and told Bradley and the rest of the PACU team about her dream.
"I was like, you're never going to guess,” Unseth said. “I had this dream you coded on the ground and died."
While everyone agreed it was a distressing dream, they all laughed it off and continued with their shifts. But three hours later, Unseth’s dream became reality when Bradley collapsed in the hallway due to a sudden cardiac arrest.
“I heard her smack to the ground,” Unseth said. “When I came around the corner and saw her on the floor, all I could think about was, ‘I had this dream and she died. That cannot be the outcome here.’ ”
And, thankfully, it wasn’t. Staff from across the PACU and Operating Rooms came to aid their co-worker and friend. After 10 minutes of CPR and a shock with a defibrillator, the team successfully brought Bradley back and transferred her to the Emergency Department. She was admitted to the hospital and released a couple days later, making a full recovery, thanks to the quick work of her team. She underwent treatment and her progress is being closely monitored.
Bradley doesn’t remember much of that day, but she said she is grateful for her PACU family.
“They brought me back to life,” she said. “I can’t be thankful enough. I’m blessed that I was in the right place at the right time. These people here are so wonderful."
Watch TV news coverage of this amazing story:
- Watch on Fox47: Nurse's dream nearly turns into real life nightmare
- Watch on News 3 Now: Nurse's dream nearly becomes reality
