2006 Inspired Comfort Award Grand Prize Winner — Advanced Practice Nurse Category

Nomination

Recipient:	Bonnie Marchetti, RN 2006 Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award Grand Prize Winner RN Category
Job Title:	Registered Nurse
Employer:	Harbor Hospital Baltimore, MD
Nominated by:	Tina Clary

I am delighted to nominate Bonnie Marchetti for the 2006 Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award. Bonnie inspires compassion and sacrifice not only in her career as an Emergency RN but as well in her life away from the hospital. Whether it be holding the hand of a young woman struggling through cervical cancer to rushing out in the cold to help frightened friends who have lost their dogs in the middle of the night.

Although I knew Bonnie was special individual, I learned more about who she really was when Hurricane Katrina hit the Louisiana coast. While the rest of us watched the devastation on our television not knowing what we could do to help, Bonnie did not hesitate. Immediately she contacted the American Red Cross and volunteered to help. With the lack of facilities and personnel in the areas hardest hit, 8pm on Sunday, she was asked to assist in Louisiana. Right away she contacted the necessary parties at Harbor Hospital where she was on duty in the emergency department to notify them of her situation. Harbor gave her paid leave for her time away. By 9 am on Labor Day Monday, while the rest of us were ending the summer at cookouts with friends and family, Bonnie was being vaccinated at the Maryland National Guard base and being loaded onto a Military Plane C-130J, her final destination still unknown. She was told her help could be needed anywhere from 2-4 weeks.

Bonnie willing and readily left her comfort, family and friends behind to go to an unknown place and unknown circumstances, to do what she could to help the most. When she landed, the National Guard Unit she was with was assigned to an abandoned hospital West Jefferson Parrish just northwest of New Orleans. Within 24 hours of arrival, 6 clinics where setup in area that was poverty stricken even before the hurricane. Bonnie worked in a MASH unit that was set-up in a tiny elementary school that was shocking that schools like this still exist in the US. That clinic saw and treated 61 patients within the first day. The area had no power available, so for the 2 weeks she spent there, the whole area was under Marshall Law and curfew were established from sunset to sunrise. Even in such a foreign and scary situation, Bonnie persevered. Her clinic treated over 1000 patients in Bonnie’s time in service in Louisiana and still had a moment of silence in remembrance of 9/11. Relief staff came and Bonnie turned over her post. She returned home on September 19th both mentally and physically exhausted, yet still she wished she could have done more.

Upon returning to Maryland, Bonnie and the rest of Operation Lifeline would like to sponsor that school once it was re-established so that the children could have the benefit of decent school books and supplies that we may take for granted. I am proud to nominate Bonnie Marchetti, as a Nurse, as my hero, as a person and as my friend. Thank you for your consideration.

[ Back to top ] [ Back to 2006 Winners ]