Mystery nurse helps save restaurant patron, disappears

PHOENIX — A family's celebration dinner at a Scottsdale restaurant last Saturday turned into a frightening ordeal after their mother suddenly lost consciousness at the table.

Now the Phoenix family would like to find the Good Samaritan they say helped save their mother's life — and then mysteriously disappeared.

Al D'Appollonio said his family was dining at Sumo Maya, a restaurant in Scottsdale on Saturday, Dec. 5. At about 7:30 p.m., they were nearing the end of their meal, a cheerful affair that had been a celebration for his wife's birthday.

"They had just brought her a free dessert," D'Appollonio said.

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That's when he noticed his mother-in-law, Irene DeSantis, suddenly staring vacantly into space in her seat.

"I told my wife who was sitting next to her, 'Talk to your mother, talk to your mother,'" he said. DeSantis remained unresponsive. "That's when I got up and moved around and I tried to wake her, and she wasn't responding to that at all."

Carefully, D'Appollonio laid his mother-in-law on the ground so family members could elevate her feet. In the restaurant's dim interior, it was difficult to assess her condition.

As they were doing that, D'Appollonio said a woman came over to their table.

"She's like, 'I'm a nurse. Do you want some help?'" he remembered.

Neither one of them could find a pulse on DeSantis, so D'Appollonio started chest compressions while the nurse performed mouth-to-mouth breathing. Someone from the restaurant called 911.

Soon, paramedics arrived and whisked DeSantis away on a stretcher. She had since started breathing again on her own. D'Appollonio and his family members followed the ambulance workers outside and, in the commotion, never got the stranger's name.

That evening, the family spent three hours in the emergency room, where DeSantis underwent numerous tests but was later discharged with no apparent problems.

"It's one of those unexplained medical mysteries," he said.

Still, the family has not been able to forget about the mysterious Good Samaritan who stepped forward to help.

"My wife felt very guilty about not even being able to say thank you and not even knowing her name," D'Appollonio said. "I really did not get a good look at her. I don't even really know what color hair she had."

The family reached out to Sumo Maya, but the general manager there said he was not able to locate the woman after Saturday night's emergency. D'Appollonio's wife wrote an open letter to the "Angel Nurse," which ran in The Arizona Republic on Wednesday.

"We never even saw your face, but we turned around and watched you breathe for her, and saw her finally gasp for air," the letter said. "We ran out of there to the hospital, never thanking you. We will always deeply regret that, but we want you to know that we will always thank you and hold you dear."

A Sumo Maya hostess who was working that Saturday night, who didn't want to give her name, told The Republic that she remembers the nurse and her party had arrived thinking they had a reservation through OpenTable.com. They ended up having to wait for a table to open up, the hostess said, but ultimately left without being seated.

"They never actually did" eat at the restaurant, the hostess said.

D'Appollonio said he knows it's a long shot to find the nurse who helped his mother-in-law, but hopes someone reading might know her and pass their gratitude along.

"I think we both would just like to thank her for her assistance," D'Appollonio said. "That was one of those above-and-beyond things where you just jumped in on something and really made a big difference. It would have been nice if we could have shook her hand and said thank you."