Health

18 HEALTH • Fall 2017 CEOs up security as injured Harrington nurse fights for safer hospitals \\ By Emily Micucci I t started out just like any other day at work for 65-year-old reg- istered nurse Elise Wilson. A veteran emergency room nurse who worked at Harrington Hospital in Southbridge for 43 years, Wilson didn't notice any- thing unusual at first about the patient she was triaging on June 14. Then the demeanor of Conor O'Regan, the sus- pect who police say stabbed Wilson multiple times before fleeing, changed. His widened eyes began darting around the room. Wilson said by the time she realized he was a threat and that she needed to alert others, it was too late. ELISE'S LAW "I couldn't get up. I couldn't get away," Wilson said in an interview last month. Wilson, a Dudley resident, remembers most of the attack, but little of the aftermath. She suffered severe wounds to her arm and neck, resulting in nerve damage and a severed brachial artery. She nearly died of blood loss, but after receiving quick treatment from her coworkers at Harrington and then being airlifted to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Wilson made a remarkable recovery over the summer. Perhaps just as miraculous is her upbeat atti- tude following such a violent attack. Wilson said it helps she remembers the attack, and isn't experi- encing it through frightening flashbacks. She's also acutely aware that she narrowly escaped death, and the loss of her arm. "None of those things happened. I did survive it. I got a lot of units of blood," Wilson said. Legislating safety Now faced with the decision of whether to retire early as her recovery continues, Wilson has become an advocate for legislation the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) says will make nurses, other hospital staff, and Elise Wilson, 65, has made a remarkable recovery since sustaining multiple stab wounds in June while on the job at Harrington Hospital in Southbridge. patients, safer. The bill, renamed Elise's Law in the wake of Wilson's attack, would require healthcare employ- ers to conduct annual safety risk assessments, and to develop and implement workplace violence prevention plans based on the findings. The bill provides healthcare workers assaulted on the job up to seven paid days off per calendar year to address legal issues, allows nurses to use their healthcare facility address instead of their home address to handle legal issues related to an assault, in order to protect their privacy, and requires semiannual reporting of assaults on healthcare employees to district attorneys. Similar bills have been filed and batted around in recent years but failed to pass. The current leg- islation was filed in January, and supporters, including Wilson, are hopeful the Harrington attack will be the catalyst for its success this time. The bill was approved by the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security in July after previous versions sat in committee since 2009. "I kind of need something really good to come out of this," Wilson said. Wilson's stabbing was a particularly heinous case of workplace violence in a healthcare setting, but the MNA has highlighted an increase in vio- lence against nurses and other healthcare workers in recent years. Biting, hitting and pushing are common, said Chris Pontus, associate director of Health and Safety at the MNA. "I would be pushing harder to have the Legislature require the things that we have done." Edward Moore, CEO, Harrington Healthcare, on legislation filed by the Massachusetts Nurses Association

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