Opinion | In Honor of the Real Heroes

Lots of words get overused and many of them misused. “Liberal” and “conservative” are two words that many of us misuse, even the great New York Times. No space for that here, but feel free to call me if you’d like the mental exercise of a discussion on that topic.

We also hear the word “hero” a lot. But you know what, there are times when that is exactly the right word.

Recently, I moderated a webinar with members of the workers’ compensation and safety teams of the New York-based hospital system Northwell Health and its risk management partners at Broadspire. (Yes, Broadspire advertises with us, but this letter is not a piece of public relations work for that company or, at least, is not intended as such.)

Minutes into the webinar, when talking about the safety measures taken by Northwell during the COVID-19 pandemic, I realized I was talking to people who are heroic.

Seven-day work weeks since March, in which Northwell staff treated and released more than 13,000 COVID-positive patients, shows the selfless, altruistic work being done at Northwell and other hospital systems.

Listening to John Lastella of Broadspire talk about counseling a COVID-19-positive nurse who feared she would lose her job gave me heart pangs.

And yes, I am a journalist and can admit this work has made me hard-hearted in some ways.

Words mean different things to different people. Maybe the work these people do does not make them heroes to you. But it makes them heroes to me.

Many things I do in this job I consider honors. Interviewing the Northwell/Broadspire risk management partners in June was certainly one of them. &