Two South Nassau Employees Honored For Life-Saving Actions By Nassau County Fire Commission

OCEANSIDE, N.Y. - May 26, 2016 - PRLog -- Two South Nassau Communities Hospital employees - Anna Gornicz and Jose Madera - were honored by the Nassau County Fire Commission with its 2016 Civilian Award for their heroic and swift action to extinguish a fire in a patient care area of the hospital.

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and fire officials presented the awards during a ceremony Wednesday (4/27) at the Nassau County Firefighters Museum in Garden City.

"South Nassau is proud and thankful that Anna and Jose followed their training to bravely and rapidly act to protect patients," said Richard J. Murphy, South Nassau's President & CEO. "We always say we put patients first at South Nassau. The actions of Jose and Anna demonstrated that commitment in a crisis situation."

Nassau fire officials also lauded their actions. "The [Fire] Commission finds that the actions and service of Ms. Gornicz and Mr. Madera at this incident were commendable and in the highest traditions of service to one's fellow man, and we extend our sincere congratulations to them," added James Mezey, Jr., Chairman, Nassau County Fire Commission.

A little after 9 p.m. on May 1, 2015, Mr. Madera (a resident of Freeport) who had been arranging chairs in the hospital's Conference Center, responded to the piercing sound of a smoke alarm coming from the first floor of the hospital. He and Ms. Gornicz (a resident of West Hempstead) were the first to arrive in a patients' room, where a small fire had been started by a patient who set fire to plastic items on a patient over-bed table.

Working in concert with other hospital staff members, Ms. Gornicz and Mr. Madera organized a seamless and safe evacuation of the patients--who were unharmed-into the hallway.  Then Ms. Gornicz and Mr. Madera went back into the room with a blanket to smother the flames and a fire extinguisher to put out the fire.  After extinguishing the fire, Gornicz and Madera quickly and astutely closed the patient room door to limit smoke from spreading throughout the patient care unit and impacting other any patient.

"Were it not for the appropriate actions by Anna Gornicz and Jose Madera, there may have been a worse outcome for both patients and possibly others," said Joseph Mihalich, South Nassau's director of Facilities Management.

 For Mr. Madera, an Environmental Services Lead Aide who joined South Nassau 27 years ago, ensuring that patients are out of harm's way is a priority. "When the patients are safe, you feel happy," he said.

Designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), South Nassau® Communities Hospital is one of the region's largest hospitals, with 455 beds, more than 900 physicians and 3,000 employees.  Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services.  In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty, and is the only hospital on Long Island with the Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies.  South Nassau is a designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons and is an accredited center of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Association and Quality Improvement Program.  In addition, the hospital has been awarded the Joint Commission's gold seal of approval as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, perinatal care and surgical care; and disease-specific care for hip and joint replacement, wound care and end-stage renal disease. For more information, visit www.southnassau.org.