Adam Hoye, an officer with IVCC’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, got more than lessons on leadership when he recently attended the PTK International Convention in San Jose, Calif.

Hoye, a trained emergency medical technician, stepped up to lend medical aid to a woman who was close to slipping into a diabetic coma.
While Hoye, the PTK vice president of fellowship, and other PTK officers were waiting for another session to start, Hoye noticed a fellow PTK member from the Kansas State region assisting a female student from one of the Iowa PTK chapters. Hoye quickly lent his assistance and located a medical dog tag on the student’s neck, which outlined her medical conditions.

“We both worked on her SAMPLE history (Signs/Symptoms, Allergies, Medications, Past History, Last Oral Intake and Events Prior),” Hoye said.
“We found her pulse to be 72 bpm but erratic. She was cold and clammy and sweating profusely and claimed that it was her upper stomach area that was having a pain on a scale of 9-10.”
As the student became unresponsive, paramedics finally arrived with a blood glucose meter, and a reading revealed that the student’s blood sugar had reached 482, which is almost high enough to send a person into a diabetic coma, according to Hoye.

Because Hoye and the Kansas State EMT had done so much of the preparatory work, paramedics were able to do an immediate transport on the patient to a local hospital, and Hoye learned later that the patient had stabilized and was recovering.
IVCC’s PTK advisor LeeAnn Johnson is working to secure local and regional recognition for Hoye for his life-saving efforts at the convention.