Nurse, Albuterol donation helps Polk student
Little did Tiffani Dodd suspect that in her first week as the school nurse at Cedartown Middle School she would be called on to help a student who was experiencing respiratory distress on a school bus.
Thanks to the foresight by Floyd Polk Medical Center, she had the items she needed to help him.
Earlier this school year, Floyd Polk Medical Center donated emergency albuterol, tubing and nebulizers in case they had a student in crisis.
Albuterol is inhaled to help open the airways, but must be inhaled through a nebulizer to work.
The incident occurred just before Christmas break after Dodd had transferred to Cedartown Middle from Young’s Grove Elementary School.
“The bus had already left the school when the boy began having trouble,” Dodd said. “The school resource officer brought him into the clinic and I was ready to hook him up to the nebulizer when he arrived.”
The boy was fine afterward. “I was so grateful that we had the equipment,” said Dodd. “In this incident it made a big difference.”
She said when she was at Young’s Grove a student there experienced a similar respiratory issue, but because the school didn’t have the medication or the nebulizer they had to call 911. The child was OK.
Dodd has been a school nurse for three years. She said interacting with the students is the best part of her day, but the task can sometimes be daunting.
“You might have a kid’s life in your hands and you might be the only medical professional in the whole place and everyone is looking at you,” Dodd said.
Dodd actually replaced her mother in law, Mia Dodd, at Cedartown Middle.
“She said nothing like that ever happened when she was here,” Tiffani Dodd said.
She said not all of her days are dramatic. She helps students take medications, takes care of sick children and even helps students with diabetes count carbs.
“Just the other day I had to call a candy bar company and ask them how many carbs are in their candy bar,” Dodd said.