Salute to Nurses

Woman reunited with nurse who saved her life

Ty Greenless Stacie Oxman (right) is being honored as one of eight winners of the DDN "Salute to Nurses" in recognition of her saving Wanda Gruenschlaeger life at a Bengals game last fall.

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By Mary McCarty, Staff Writer Updated 11:02 PM Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Wanda Gruenschlaeger has no memory of the first time she met Stacie Oxman in the ladies’ room at Paul Brown Stadium last Nov. 16. “I remember washing my hands, and the next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital wondering if the Bengals had won,” the Hamilton grandmother recalled.

Boxes of tissues were mercifully on hand for the women’s first reunion Tuesday morning, May 19. Oxman, an ICU nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital, was honored as one of eight winners of the Dayton Daily News Salute to Nurses contest for saving Gruenschlaeger’s life after she suffered sudden cardiac arrest. Gruenschlaeger and her daughter, Connie Frost, nominated Oxman, a Xenia mother of three, who was selected from 200 nominated nurses. At the awards banquet Gruenschlaeger’s other daughter, Nikki Hawk, warned that “these two will bawl hysterically, so don’t be alarmed.”

Hawk was on her way back from Michigan when she received the call about her mother’s hospitalization and near-death. She is the mother of three young children, including 7-year-old Isaac, who has autism. “I wondered. “How am I going to explain to Isaac that Grammy has gone to heaven?’” she told the audience. “How will I explain to 5-year-old Olivia that we call her Olippia because she’s lippy like her Grandma? And I don’t know how to tell our 2-year-old, Elijah, that he’ll never get to know her.”

Thanks to Oxman’s quick thinking — and the presence of a defibrillator at the stadium — Hawk didn’t have to face those painful tasks. “After this story, how can anyone question the presence of God and a higher power?” she asked. “Every day I thank God for Stacie and the fact she had to go potty that day.”

Hawk noted that Oxman wasn’t being honored for one heroic moment: “This is Stacie every day. She is extraordinary all the time, whether on duty or off duty.”

All morning long, Gruenschlaeger and Oxman could barely look at each other without bursting into tears.

They will need to get over that.

“I know this is the beginning of a lifelong friendship,” Oxman said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2209 or mmccarty@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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