Danny Neumann is a nurse in the emergency department at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix.
And he’s the latest edition of The Show's series Second Acts — stories of Arizonans who are starting over, maybe midway through life, maybe in retirement, maybe just as they're getting going.
This second act took place right in the middle of Danny Neumann's life.
DANNY NEUMANN: Since 1988, I had been sitting at a desk in front of a computer, working with Adobe programs, making things.
LAUREN GILGER: Neumann spent most of his career as a graphic designer here in the Valley. He told me he has always had a creative itch. Every day he needs to make something.
NEUMANN: Graphic design, even if it wasn't a client I was necessarily loving or a project I wasn't passionate about, at least at the end of the day, I made something. And making something out of nothing is very fulfilling.
GILGER: But at a certain point in life, after decades in the business, something started to change for him.
NEUMANN: I knew I needed to break away from sitting at a desk eight hours a day. I needed to do something more hands on something. Something more analog, not digital. I wanted to be a little bit more of a part of my community, too.
GILGER: This, I realized, could go in a lot of directions based on those criteria. But it was all happening in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. And Neumann was inspired by the nurses he saw acting as frontline workers, running into the fire at a time when hospitals felt like dangerous places to work every day.
He told me about it back on The Show in 2022, when he came on to talk about his decision to change the entire course of his life at age 48.
NEUMANN: The more I heard stories about the sacrifices they were making and the efforts that were involved in just, you know, surviving the pandemic. I realized I wanted to be that person. I wanted to work with those people, not just because it's more active and more physical and more hands on, but because — and I know this starts to sound kind of corny — but I really did want to do something that helped people, especially helped people, like, on their worst day.
GILGER: Well, it's been four years since Neumann started his second act, so he came back into our studios to tell me how it's going.
NEUMANN: I may have overshot a bit. I want to do something more active. And I'd come home after my first few shifts as a patient care technician realizing I had, like, tracked like, 9 miles worth of steps, you know, in a day.
GILGER: You never sit down.
NEUMANN: No. You never sit down.
GILGER: You're not in front of a computer screen.
NEUMANN: Ask me about what, what the best sneakers are like, I'll tell you.
GILGER: Yes, nurses know that best.
NEUMANN: Yes.
GILGER: And it's not like a creative field at all either. That's what really strikes me about this. Like, you talk about this creative itch you have and the ways in which you were trying to fulfill that all the time. I mean, this is not that at all.
NEUMANN: No, it's not that at all. I was ecstatic when my managers first approached me asking if I would be interested in designing T-shirts for the department.
GILGER: You're wearing one.
NEUMANN: I'm wearing one. And they did not know what was coming.
GILGER: Right, so you're at St. Joe's, you're in the ED, and you've been there for a couple of years now. You're just about to graduate from nursing school. The first time we talked to you, you were just starting all of this. But you've been in the hospital for a couple years now and been working in this kind of really probably stressful setting in the ER.
I mean, I wonder, is it living up to expectations? What's it been like?
NEUMANN: It really has. I mean, please don't get me wrong, there are days when I leave that place crying, wondering, "What on earth have I done?" But that's only a way to let off a little bit of steam because honestly, it is everything I hoped for. I really got lucky because it could have.
I mean, I mean, it could have been a huge investment and into something that, you know, into a huge mistake. But it's not been that. All of the things that I listed at the outset are there, 100%. But that and more, I can't say it strong enough how much I love the people I work with.
The team that I work with in the ER at St. Joe's is phenomenal. So even though every shift I'm walking into just chaos and panic, I know that somebody there always has my back. And at the end of the day, I can walk out of that place feeling like I was part of an amazing team.
And, yeah, I was able to help people to the best of my ability.
GILGER: Yeah. So it's the opposite in so many ways. Like, it's hands on, it's face to face with people, it's life or death consequences, all of these kind of very high stakes things. I mean, there must be a million. But is there a moment that stands out to you? Like a day, a patient, something that makes you, that really solidified this for you?
NEUMANN: You really hit the ground running over there. I mean, from the very first day, I don't want to get too graphic or gory. But you do, I mean, you do see some pretty gnarly things. Working in a Level 1 trauma emergency department, obviously some of the first codes that you work on in the ER are bracing.
GILGER: Explain that. For those of us who didn't watch.
NEUMANN: A lot of ERs, a code is when somebody comes into the emergency department without a pulse and you are performing advanced life support in order to hopefully bring that person back to life.
GILGER: Literally.
NEUMANN: Yeah, literally bring that person back to life. And sometimes it happens. And that's an amazing feeling to be part of a team that was like pounding on this person's chest or administering epinephrine or administering a shockable rhythm. And that person survived. But sometimes they don't. And sometimes you have to put somebody in a body bag and put a toe tag on them.
And I don't know, I remember one of the first times I had to do that and I remember putting a toe tag on a body and just noticing that this person had a brand new pedicure. And I started crying because it hit me that this person did not wake up today assuming that this was going to be the eventuality.
And that can hit really hard. And not that over time you become callous to those things. Maybe some people do, but you very quickly have to finish up what you're doing there and move on to your next patient. None of that stops.
GILGER: You're confronting death in a way that, I mean, most of us don't have to.
NEUMANN: You are, you are. And I don't want to give the impression that that's all day, every day. It's not. I mean, you're not dealing with that one after another, but you are dealing with sick, hurting, scared people all day long. That is for sure.
And maybe to answer your original question, I think when I finally became a nurse after all those years of being a tech and my one on one patient interactions started increasing.
I mean, now it's my job to care for this care and advocate for this person. I started to realize like, oh my gosh, yes. This idea that I had all those years ago and is now finally coming to fruition, it was the right decision. I do pretty good at helping these people feel less scared and a little bit more comforted and for sure seen in a scary place and in a big confusing system.
GILGER: Have there been moments you've doubted this decision?
NEUMANN: Yeah, oh yes, there's been days all along. But there's certainly been some days in the last couple weeks where I've, I've left that ER, sat in my car for a minute and thought to myself, maybe I'm not cut out for this.
And so I did have a day like that recently. And the next morning I went in and I was just keeping my head kind of held a little bit low, low.
I don't know, just sort of bracing. Like, can I do that again? And somehow, just this team that I work with, somehow they knew or they were there yesterday and they saw it. And literally each of them sort of kind of came up to me low key and said, "Are you OK? I know you had a tough one. Like, I'm here for you and you can do this. And not every day is going to be like that."
And within 15 minutes, I was like, "OK, I'm ready for this again."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to an editing error, this headline has been updated to correct Danny Neumann's age when he became a nurse.
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