About 25 years ago, Julie Labes was scheduled to have her gallbladder removed. She'd been experiencing moderate pain on and off, but her doctor said that was normal, so she wasn't worried.
One December day, a little less than a week before her surgery, Julie was feeling unwell. That evening, her coworkers convinced her to go out to dinner with them. She obliged, but she began to feel so ill that she couldn't eat and excused herself early.
"By the time I got home, I was in quite a lot of pain. I was crying," Labes recalled.
Seeing the state she was in, her husband handed her the phone and told her to call her doctor.
" So I called my doctor and he said, 'Julie, you have to go to the emergency room right now.'"
Labes and her husband woke up their small children, packed them into the car and drove to the closest emergency department.
After checking in at the front desk, they sat down. While they waited, they chatted with another woman there with her mother, who was having breathing issues.
A few minutes passed, and Labes' pain only got worse. Her husband checked with the receptionist, who said they'd be called in soon.
With each second that went by, Labes' pain became more and more excruciating. Sitting only made it worse, so she stood, leaning against a wall, shaking and crying.
The other woman in the waiting room watched Labes for a few moments before she stood up and went to the receptionist's desk.
"She banged on the glass very loud and the receptionist came [over] and [the woman] said, 'Listen to me. I'm a nurse. This woman is going into shock. You need to get her in there right now.'"
After that, Labes was rushed into the ER and assessed. That evening, she had her gallbladder removed in an emergency surgery.
The next morning, Labes' doctor visited her at the hospital. He was upset with her for having waited so long to get help.
"He said, 'You must have been in agony.' And I said, 'Well, you told me I'd have some pain.' He said, 'Pain! Your gallbladder was gangrenous... Another hour [and] you would've been dead.'"
Labes never got to thank the woman who ensured she got the care she needed. But more than 25 years later, she still thinks about her.
"I'm a hundred percent sure she saved my life that night. She's my unsung hero."
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
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