WASHINGTON (KMOX) — A local nurse got a close up and behind the scenes view of Tuesday night's State of the Union address.
Helen Sandkuhl is the administrative director of emergency medicine at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital. She's also a longtime member of the National Disaster Medical System, which has deployed her to disaster sites like the Gulf Coast after Katrina, Haiti after Hurricane Matthew, and Joplin after the 2011 tornado.
Last year, Sandkuhl was at the Capitol providing a similar precautionary service for the funeral proceedings for President George H.W. Bush -- which brought together the five living American presidents.
Tuesday night she was at the State of the Union Address -- positioned just outside the House Chamber door close to President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- in case the unthinkable happened.
"My group was a group of six. We had a physician, nurse practitioner, two nurses, and two medics," Sandkhul told KMOX's Fred Bodimer. "If was a terrorist event or a biologic event or something like that, the first group would go in and stabilize the scene, and then (my group) would move in quickly,"
Sandkuhl says thankfully nothing went wrong...although she did have to provide aid to someone who got overheated in the chamber. That's just one person out of the approximately 1,500 lawmakers, dignitaries and guests inside the House chamber for the address Tuesday night.