‘It’s a dangerous job ... it’s scary’
Hospital stabbing highlights perils for personnel
Michael Wilson of Worcester always knew his mother, Elise — a longtime emergency room nurse — was a vulnerable target working on the front lines of high-risk medical care. But the knife attack on Wednesday that left the dedicated caretaker in critical condition surpassed even his worst fears.
“It’s a dangerous job, but you don’t expect someone to come and do that,” said Wilson, 36, of Worcester. “Especially in the situation she was in. It was random.
“It’s frustrating,” he said. “And it’s scary.”
Elise’s alleged attacker, Conor O’Regan, 24, told police he wanted revenge after receiving what he considered to be sub-par care for a wrist injury at Harrington Hospital in Southbridge. So on Wednesday, the 65-yearold nurse was attacked while on the job, months away from her December retirement. She just happened to cross the wrong man’s path at the wrong time. She was stabbed multiple times in the face and suffered a severe cut on her left arm.
“She’s an awesome nurse and has always cared tremendously about the people she took care of,” said a shaken and exhausted Michael, who spent the entire day Wednesday at the hospital waiting for updates on his mother’s condition.
The attack came just a day after Elise’s granddaughter, Olive, turned 3. The little girl wakes up beaming whenever she knows her grandma Elise will be watching her, Michael said.
“She’s amazing. She watches my daughter every Tuesday, at a minimum. And every Tuesday when I wake her up, she’s just so excited,” Michael said.
Elise also has a 31-yearold daughter Amanda, who followed in her mother’s footsteps and works as an emergency room nurse in New York, adding a layer of fear and devastation to her mother’s shocking attack, Michael said.
“She’s always loved her job,” Michael said. “She liked the fast-paced environment, liked the fact that she was making lifechanging decisions.”
But now Elise remains in critical condition on the receiving end of care, and hasn’t woken up since her own colleagues worked furiously to save her life before she was flown to UMass Medical Center in Worcester for a lengthy surgery, her son said.
A dwindling sense of workplace safety, especially for emergency room nurses, has been an issue that seems to worsen as the drug epidemic spreads and treatment for mental illness becomes more difficult to get, said former Brigham and Women’s ER nurse Karen Daley.
“We’re seeing more and more people with illnesses related to substance abuse and mental illness, and people who are homeless who might not be getting the treatment they need,” said Daley, a former president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
Daley said proper staffing and security coverage — two issues at the center of strike negotiations at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Tufts Medical Center — could help prevent incidents by having more eyes and more attention on potentially troubled patients.
“This story is really so sad,” Daley said. “But it’s not totally surprising to me.”
The family has started a GoFundMe page to cover medical expenses during Elise’s recovery: gf.me/u/ wqbee