Amazing Rescue Ends Student's Journey

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The journey was long, but it was worth it. After 8 years, Charity Caldwell completed her nursing degree. And on graduation day, duty called, and she proved she could do it.

Charity Townsend Caldwell tells FOX13, "I started off with all of this, it was 2001, so this has been an 8 year thing for me."

Caldwell was a single mother who struggled to become a nurse. After failing two classes, she was dismissed from Southwest Tennessee Community College. The nursing program is not an easy program; it is a very difficult, demanding program.

In 2007, the nationwide nursing shortage meant Caldwell would get a second chance. After an 8 year journey, she was finally graduating, but didn't want to go to the ceremony. At the last minute, classmates convinced her.

"And my son, I wanted him to see this is the end result of everything we went through to get here," says Caldwell.

Caldwell was running a few minutes late to her graduation at the DeSoto Civic Center. She rushed inside to find a crowd surrounding a man on the ground, that's when her instinct kicked in, and she jumped in to help.

"I busted through, went straight for his neck to feel for a pulse. I got him back twice, he opened his eyes, took a big breath, I said 'come on, stay with me, it's ok, you can do this,' and he went out again," remembers Caldwell.

The man she saved, Glen Swinny, Dean of Health Sciences, doesn't remember much about that Saturday.

"I remember absolutely nothing, I went completely blank until sometime when I finally woke up in the intensive care after the surgery," says Swinny.

After an 8 day stay in the hospital, he's recovering, and amazed at the series of events that led to him living to tell the tale.

"Absolutely amazed, for all practical purposes, I really shouldn't even be here today," Swinny says with a smile.

Charity says "I don't feel like I did anything extraordinary, its just somebody needed help, I was there, and I knew what to do, that's all it is."

Charity says it was divine intervention that brought the two together. It was a second chance at life for the dean, and a chance to prove herself to the world.

Before the heart attack, Dean Swinny had plans of retiring at the end of June. That's still his plan. And another part of his plan, meet Charity in person, so he can thank her for a second chance at life.