Badges of Courage

AFSCME taps four UNA members "Nurse Heroes."

Last February when Registered Nurse Cynthia Fearnley was on vacation in Vermont, a snowboarder flew past her and crashed headfirst into the snow. By the time Fearnley reached the 20-year-old, he had turned purple and was convulsing.

"I maintained cervical spine precautions with one hand and pushed his jaw forward with the other, opening his airway," said Fearnley. "He immediately began to breathe, the seizures stopped and he pinked up," by the time the Ski Patrol arrived. She said the victim is now in rehabilitation.

Fearnley is a nurse with 15 years' experience and is a member of the Connecticut Health Care Associates (NUHHCE).

A first-time Convention delegate, Fearnley was one of four AFSCME/ United Nurses of America members cited for heroism during National Nurse Recognition Week, May 6-10, and honored at the Convention. The others were:

• UNAC member Val Nelson, RN, from Fontana, Calif., helped establish the Helping Hands clinic in a back room in Mandeadero, Mexico, in 1990. The clinic now has high-tech equipment and a staff of doctors and nurses.
• Carol Nichols, LVN, of Beaumont, Texas, is a coordinator of infectious diseases for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. A member of AFSCME Local 3921, part of the new Texas corrections Council 7, she worked long and hard to upgrade policies and procedures for corrections nursing in the state and to establish an education and training program.
• District 1199J member Janet Young, RN, of Belmer, N.J., was a founding member of the local's organizing committee that in 1980 unionized Carrier Foundation Hospital, an acute psychiatric care facility.