PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Huddled outside a conference room in a hallway with Norfolk firefighter Captain Jarrod Sergi at Bon Secours Maryview Medical center. His wife works as a nursing supervisor.
She doesn't know Jarrod is there with their two sons, Maximilian and Leonidas.
They're about surprise her.
I asked Jarrod how they all kept this a secret, "I don't know." He says with a smile.
The surprise revolves around their family's recent Florida vacation—or at least their flight to the Sunshine State.
There were actually two surprises.
The team at Bon Secours had gathered inside a conference room, to surprise Gosia Sergi, with a special nursing award, and News 3 was invited too because we had our own surprise.
Once we got the green light to go inside with hubby and the kids, Gosia soon realized something was up.
"I just thought I had to come to another meeting," she said. "It's been very humbling, I think and very unexpected because it doesn't seem like it deserved the recognition. It's just something you do."
That something they did possibly saved a life.
Mid-way through their flight, they heard an announcement from a flight attendant—a passenger who needed medical attention.
Gosia remembers how the family wasn't sitting together.
"[Jarrod] was on the back of the plane. I was kinda in the middle of the plane. We each had one kiddo with us. So we just kinda glanced over at each other, we're like yeah, we're getting up," she said.
Jarrod says the passenger didn't look good; she was pale and appeared to be unconscious.
"She was slumped over and ultimately we put her on the floor where we had a little bit more room to work," he said.
Gosia said it was more of an adjustment for her.
"That's new," she said. My background is in emergency nursing. For him it's not so new, he's out in the field. So I'm sure for him he's worked weird constricted conditions before."
But they are both used to having access to a variety of life-saving supplies.
"They had a decent amount, maybe not so much supplies, but they had the basic things," Gosia acknowledges. "I would get the medicine going. You know he was getting the vital signs, I would get the IV fluids hanging, we just kinda went back and forth."
The patient regained consciousness and once the plane landed, there were emergency teams on the ground in Ft. Lauderdale ready to take over and get the passenger to the hospital.
For these reasons, News 3 presented Gosia and Jarrod with an Everyday Hero award along with a $300 Visa gift card from our community partner Southern Bank.
