Potential Dallas County juror saves other juror’s life

DALLAS - Dallas County criminal judges paused to honor a woman who went above and beyond answering her call to jury duty.

While waiting to be chosen to serve on a jury panel, another potential juror suffered a seizure. That's when Katherine Kreis stepped in.

Kreis answered her summons for jury duty handling her civic duty. But when she showed up, she did much more than serving on a jury.

Felony and misdemeanor criminal court judges on Thursday show their appreciation to Kreis for her actions June 27 in the central jury room.

"I was sitting in the waiting room waiting to be called, and I happened to notice the gentleman next to me was shaking and threw his phone, and it kind of caught my attention," she recalled.

Retired judge Molly Franics now serves as a visiting judge.

"We had an individual say loudly, ‘There's a man here who is having a seizure,’" she recalled.

That June day, Francis was in the central jury room answering her own jury summons with about a hundred others. 

Francis watched Kreis, who by profession is a nurse.

"At that moment, I got up and went over to him to help stabilize and make sure he wasn't going to injure himself," Kreis recalled.

Others moved to help, but Kreis knew what to do.

"I've been a nurse for about 20+ years now, and cardia thoracic surgery cardiac telemetry neuro patients seizure patients, those are my kind of patients," she said.

The clinical assistant professor at the UT Arlington School of Nursing saved the sick juror who is now in rehab.

Kreis has helped others in life experiencing medical episodes but believes her being in the central jury room that day was providence.

"I think it was supposed to be there for that reason. I’ve never been summoned to jury duty before so it was my first time to do that," she said. "And I wasn't real sure what to expect, and I really feel like it was a right place right time kind of thing."

The nurse says one of the things that really helped was she could find this man's medication list and family member contacts. She encourages everyone to put that kind of information in their wallets and purses.

Kreis was also excused from jury duty after her work to save that juror. She hopes to meet the man when he is stronger and hopes she gets the opportunity again to serve on  a Dallas County jury.