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“When stressed and presented with people in need, my true nature as a person and professional just came out. I am a nurse at heart.” —Margaret Bobonich |
COVER STORYSurvivor Margaret carries the torch
by Leslie Flowers The thick jungle began to take its toll as a thorn-covered tree fell on Blake Towsley. While the 24-year-old Dallas real estate broker reeled in pain, nurse practitioner Margaret Bobonich, RN, MS, tended to his injuries as darkness fell in the Guatemalan jungle. Towsley also had difficulty breathing during the 11-mile trek. When he began to hyperventilate, there were no paper bags for him to breathe into to control his carbon dioxide level. Bobonich quickly improvised. She ripped out the plastic liner of a bota bag and used it as a rebreathing apparatus. For the first several days in the jungle, Bobonich nursed the cuts, scrapes, blisters and other injuries of her tribe mates as a contestant on the CBS-TV reality show “Survivor Guatemala: The Maya Empire.” She often used parts of her own clothing, such as her bathing suit liner, as bandages. Caring for her wounded tribe distracted Bobonich fom the mental game of “Survivor,” but she could not have acted differently, she says. By the time she got her focus back, it was day 15 and too late. She was voted off at the show’s sixth tribal council. [For more information about the concept of “Survivor,” visit http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor/show/about.shtml.] Bobonich says she has no regrets about her performance in the jungle, even if it led to an early exit from the contest. “A person’s true nature is usually revealed in ‘Survivor,’” she says. “When stressed and presented with people in need, my true nature as a person and professional just came out. I am a nurse at heart.” Life adventure Faced with an empty nest—one son in college, the other a high school junior—she began pondering what happens next as she entered middle age. Fans of “Survivor” from the beginning, her family commented frequently that she would make a great contestant. Unbeknownst to her children, Bobonich tried out for the show’s 10th season but was cut at the semifinal level. Her husband, Steve, urged her to try again, and she made it on Season 11. “I just knew I would be chosen,” she said. To prepare physically for the endurance contest, Bobonich stepped up her workout routine of speed walking and light weights. She added swimming to enhance her upper-body strength and stamina, needed for trekking with 30-pound bags of dried corn on her back, the contestants’ only nourishment for days at a time. Nothing, however, could prepare her for the dysentery that struck on Day 3 after she drank unpurified water. It lasted well after she was voted off the show on Day 15. She lost 17 pounds in 15 days, 25 pounds overall. Months later, she still finds herself grazing on food, rather than eating meals, to ward off starvation sensations. “People asked me if the conditions were really that bad on the island or if that was just for show,” she says. “Believe me, it was a lot worse than it looked on TV.” Bobonich describes the dire circumstances: 120-degree heat, oppressive humidity, physical competition and labor, and forages for food and water. “People didn’t see us sweat, because we were so severely dehydrated that we simply had no fluid in our bodies to release,” she says. “When you don’t release heat, you can go into organ failure. The risk of competing in the severe Guatemalan heat was as real as it gets.” At night the tribal mates huddled together against the cold in a makeshift shelter. They slept on palm leaves. “We had to worry about scorpions and tarantulas crawling
on us while we slept,” she says. “I would stare up
at the stars and wonder what Steve and the boys were doing at
home, but I never considered giving up.” She received her Associate Degree in Nursing from the University of Charleston and her Bachelor of Science degree from West Virginia University in Charleston. Over 15 years, her career path took her from emergency room nursing and management in northern Virginia to emergency flight nursing in West Virginia. In 1998, Bobonich began working toward a master’s degree at the Francis Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. There she joined Alpha Mu Chapter of the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International and developed relationships with members and mentors who further stoked her fire for nursing. Those mentors included Gene C. Anderson, RN, PhD, FAAN, recipient of the 2005 Audrey Hepburn Award for Contributions to the Health and Welfare of Children, and May L. Wykle, RN, PhD, FAAN, honor society president from 2001 to 2003. “I loved every part of getting my master’s,” says Bobonich. “I was a sponge. There is so much to learn about nursing, from research and teaching to health care management. I feel so fortunate to have learned from people like Dr. Anderson and Dr. Wykle. When you meet people like these women, you catch their energy and passion. Just being in their presence makes you a better person and a better professional.” Bobonich’s most influential mentor was her father, Henry Witthohn. She is a nurse practitioner today because of his belief in her. Accordingly, her graduation was a time of great accomplishment and great loss. As she prepared to receive her master’s degree and pursue a doctorate in 2001, her father’s health rapidly declined as a result of pancreatic cancer. “He knew I could think and do great things,” she says. “He was so happy when I went back for my master’s degree, because he felt I needed more knowledge to progress in my career.” To honor her father’s support and influence, Bobonich buried him with her honor society commencement cords. Deep in grief, she could not attend her graduation, but her husband and sons refused to let her achievement go unnoticed. With new cords obtained from the honor society, they dressed up in bathrobes, converted a cardboard box into a podium and held commencement ceremonies in their living room. Back to Guatemala “It is so humbling to help people who can’t obtain affordable health care,” she says. “They are so grateful for everything you do for them.” Her desire to serve people in need is taking Bobonich back to Guatemala to help mudslide and flood victims of Hurricane Stan, which hit the country in October 2005. More than 1,000 people, one-third reported to be children, were killed. “These people have less than nothing,” she says. “I have to go back to help.” Sponsored by the Francis Payne Bolton School of Nursing and partnered with a relief organization, Bobonich plans to return to Guatemala with a group to provide immunizations, rebuild hospitals and clinics, and teach Guatemalans to purify water. “It was great to have my moment of fame on ‘Survivor,’ but it’s my responsibility to do something positive with that fame,” she says. Indeed, Bobonich is reducing her clinical hours to part time to do relief work and travel as an inspirational speaker for nursing students, passing on the same power that helped her endure the Guatemalan jungle. “I have always loved being a nurse, and I want to share my enthusiasm,” she says. “It’s tough when you first get into a profession. It takes time to find your niche. I want to give young nurses the strength to keep going.” Bobonich says her “Survivor” experience affirmed her belief that no goal is off limits. “My sons now believe anything worth having is worth working hard to achieve,” she says. “They see the strength of women as competitors, and they value the quality of integrity.” RNL Leslie Flowers is a freelance writer in Indianapolis, Ind. Photo at top: CBS /Landov For more photos, click on images below:
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