It was an ordinary October morning in New York City—until it wasn’t. For attorney Merryl Hoffman, 63, it became the day she nearly lost her life to sudden cardiac arrest. And for two Memorial Sloan Kettering nurses, Sabrina Castle and Gianna Formisano, it became the day they stepped in and saved it.

Hoffman, who lives an active lifestyle and had undergone successful mitral valve surgery years ago, collapsed while walking to work. Her heart had stopped beating.

Fortunately, fate—and two fast-acting nurses—intervened.

Castle and Formisano were en route to their shifts at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center when they heard cries from bystanders: “Nurses, nurses!”

“We were so shocked,” said Formisano. “When we were walking up, people were like ‘Nurses, nurses!’ We didn’t know what we were walking into. People were grabbing our coffee, taking our bags. It was out of a movie, the way that they were like, ‘Oh, thank God you’re here.’”

Finding Hoffman unresponsive and pulseless, the nurses jumped into action and began CPR immediately, directing bystanders to call 911. They performed chest compressions for five intense minutes—what Formisano described as “feeling like forever”—until an ambulance arrived.

Hoffman was rushed to NewYork-Presbyterian’s cardiac care unit and underwent emergency surgery, during which her heart stopped again for several minutes. She remained unconscious for five days.

Despite the gravity of the event, Castle and Formisano quietly continued on to work after the ambulance left. Later that day, they called the hospital to check on Hoffman.

“She was like, ‘You got her back. She’s intubated, she’s alive, you saved her life,’” Castle recalled being told.

Hoffman now recovered and back to work with a defibrillator implanted to prevent future cardiac events, reflects on how close she came to death—and how the quick actions of Castle and Formisano changed everything.

“Without them, I was told, there was no doubt I would have died or been brain dead,” Hoffman said. “They absolutely saved my life.”

The trio has since reunited, even sharing a meal to celebrate a life renewed. And in a poignant twist of fate, the nurses recently passed Hoffman again—this time standing tall on the very same block where she had collapsed.

“We were like, ‘Wow, this is really crazy,’” said Formisano. “We’re running into you on the same spot, on our way to work, but now you’re alive and well and in a much different state than when we met you the first time.”

For their decisive, compassionate action and heroic presence at just the right moment, Daily Nurse is proud to recognize Sabrina Castle and Gianna Formisano as the Nurses of the Week. Their story is a powerful reminder that nurses don’t just change lives—they save them.

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