Our Four-Millionth Customer and Her Passion for Healing

In July of 2012, we set out on a mission to provide free advanced healthcare education to individuals, communities, and nations across the globe. This same year, we created the Save a Life Initiative to assist us in fulfilling our mission. Through our partnership with Save a Life Certifications by NHCPS, the Disque Foundation became the first organization in the world to offer free life support training courses that are entirely accessible online.

Each year, we have continued to exponentially grow and empower more and more people through our Save a Life Initiative. At the end of 2019, one year ahead of schedule, we reached our goal of empowering one million people, and just one month later, by January of 2020, we had already empowered 1.5 million people with life-saving training and certifications. As of 2021, we have empowered people in more than 182 nations and in April of 2022, ten years after our founding, Nurse Kate Ladi Are became our four-millionth customer.

It is individuals like Kate, who share in our mission to spread healthcare education globally, who have allowed us to empower millions of people to save lives. Kate’s story of being a nurse in Nigeria, a nation thousands of miles from our headquarters in the U.S., and taking our certification courses online has exemplified the importance of global connections and proves that people anywhere in the world can participate in the SaveaLife Initiative.

Saving Lives Through Preventative Nursing

Kate Ladi, wife and mother of two, initially went into nursing with the dream of being able to care for her patients until they return to full health. Shortly into her career, however, she discovered that, as a nurse, she would also be taking care of patients until they eventually pass away peacefully.

Ladi recalls one particularly enlightening experience with an elderly patient in the fourth stage of liver cirrhosis who would “just scream at the top of her voice, saying she’s in pain” (Ladi, 2022). Kate explains how she struggled to listen to the woman’s cries and describes her devastation after speaking to her chief nursing officer and finding out there was nothing they could do for her pain. Kate cried for days after the elderly woman passed away and eventually decided to speak to her class coordinator about her grief. The two shared a conversation that would soon be monumental for Ladi, in which she learned that “there are some conditions that you can’t help the patient and the best you can do is ensure that you didn’t leave any stone unturned” and this way “you’re able to give the very best to your patient” (Ladi, 2022).

After redefining what it means to be a nurse and attempting to harmonize the two potential outcomes, Ladi was drawn to preventative nursing. Since then, she has centered her career around early intervention and education to provide her patients with the best chance of staying healthy to begin with, rather than solely focusing on intervention once issues have already occurred.

The Positive Effects of Forming Connections between Patients and Medical Professionals 

Kate Ladi learned early in her career that to be a great teacher, you first need to be a great listener. She explains that reading and learning are two of her greatest hobbies, which have simultaneously led to her successes in her nursing career. Ladi explains how learning actually improves her patients’ experiences, as well, as they are more comfortable with her and trust that she is confident in her field. She specializes in making her patients feel safe by being honest, sharing details, and explaining medical procedures to them.

Kate recalls one specific experience, during the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an apprehensive patient who was sick but did not want to take time off of work. Ladi persisted that the man needed care, while still showing him patience and understanding. She outlined the benefits of the medical processes and medications and was able to relate with the man enough to gain his trust to move forward with a life-saving procedure. After the procedure, Kate recalls, “he said if not for me, my spirits and my resilience in what I do, [he] would have lost his life [and] it would have been due to his difficulty not coming forward to [receive] help” (Ladi, 2022).

Nursing has allowed Kate Ladi to impact others’ lives in monumental ways. One final moment that epitomizes her impact on her patients was when a woman recognized Kate as her delivery nurse, ran after Kate, and, eyes filled with tears, thanked Kate for saving her baby’s life when everyone else was beginning to lose hope. The woman had pelvic disproportion and was unable to conceive again, meaning that without Kate, she may not have been able to become a mother.

Despite the hardships of nursing, Kate explains that moments like these assure her that she “has impacted people’s lives not negatively, but rather positively” (Ladi, 2022). She shared that nursing is a fulfilling profession, and knowing she is saving lives through preventative measures and intervention makes her profession even more rewarding.

How Just One Person Can Empower Hundreds to Save Lives

Kate found SaveaLife.com after searching for BLS training that would certify individuals in nations outside of the United States. From Nigeria, Kate was able to not only receive her certificate in BLS, but she also took the initiative to train over 100 staff members within her company to ensure she was teaching as many individuals as possible the skills to save lives. Thank you, Kate, for participating in our Save a Life Initiative and for sharing your story with us and with the world! We know you will continue to spread your knowledge and save lives!