From left, Lt. j.g. Randy Le, Lt. Holly Sapien, Petty Officer 3rd Class John Landis and Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Sapien take a selfie aboard the MV Walla Walla after it ran aground on Bainbridge Island, Wash., April 15, 2023, due to power loss. Holly Sapien took the lead in stabilizing a man who suffered an epileptic seizure aboard the vessel. (Courtesy photo)
When a recent plea for medical help came from the crew of a disabled Washington state ferry, a Navy nurse answered the call.
Lt. Holly Sapien, who is assigned to Naval Hospital Bremerton and was a passenger on the ferry, took the lead in stabilizing a man who was having an epileptic seizure, the Navy said in a statement Tuesday.
“I had to get him out of the seat he was in,” Sapien said in the statement. “I had to get him on his side to protect his airway and prevent aspiration.”
Sapien was among 596 passengers and 15 crew members aboard MV Walla Walla on Saturday when it lost power and grounded on the south end of Bainbridge Island at about 4:30 p.m., the Navy said.
The ferry was traveling from Bremerton to Seattle across the Puget Sound for what is normally a one-hour ride. Many sailors were aboard, including Sapien’s husband and a hospital co-worker.
Other sailors, some of whom were on their way to a submarine ball, were credited with helping passengers during emergency procedures, Seattle-based KOMO News reported Sunday.
“It was just second nature at that point. It was a different boat with different people,” Navy sailor Jakob Stroud told KOMO. “We all kind of worked together and helped everyone do life jackets and guide them where they needed to go.”
There were no reported injuries related to the grounding and all passengers were safely evacuated, according to Washington State Ferries.
Sapien, an El Paso, Texas, native with nearly 10 years of Navy experience, said she relied on her service training in combat casualty care and providing basic life support in austere conditions.
Her experience in caring for people having seizures while she was working at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in Virginia also helped, said Sapien, who noted that the ferry emergency was her first time treating such a case outside a clinical setting.
“It’s nice to be there when needed and be able to jump in and help out to give peace of mind to another when there’s no hospital nearby,” Sapien said.
Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton is the third-largest Navy installation in the U.S. and is home to several submarine groups and two aircraft carriers, USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt, according to the Navy’s website.
