A symbol for Franklin Hospital's best

At Franklin Hospital, Deborah Scott will forever be a hero.

The veteran nurse not only works to save lives at home, but she has aided United States servicemen and women in four separate military operations. Scott sent the hospital a flag that flew with her during her most recent deployment, and Franklin officials decided to use it to create a Wall of Heroes in the emergency department.

Scott joined the emergency department at the North Valley Stream medical center in 1981 as a licensed professional nurse, and eventually became a registered nurse. She is presently the nurse manager of the hospital’s emergency room.

She also been in the Air Force Reserves for 24 years as a medical reservist flight nurse, belonging to the 379th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squad. Scott made her way up the ranks — captain, major and lieutenant colonel. She has seen action in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s, Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2003-05 and Operation Enduring Freedom this past year.

Helena Willis, the director of patient care services at Franklin, said that Scott sent the flag to the hospital this past winter. It had flown with her on five separate occasions, from November through January, in Qatar, Horn of Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait. Scott not only provided a case for the flag and a certificate, but also several pictures including one of her with the flag in her medical plane, which could hold up to 80 patients.

Willis said that Scott is very modest, and wanted to donate the flag quietly. But Franklin officials wanted to honor their staff hero. “We decided we were going to wait for her to come back to do a proper ceremony,” Willis said.

In the middle of a tough winter on Long Island, where Franklin Hospital was seeing many patients for weather-related injuries and illnesses, Scott’s gesture inspired the medical staff. “She’s just doing so much more than we are,” Willis said. “Amidst all this terrible stuff she was seeing, she thought of us.”

The July 8 dedication ceremony in the emergency room featured Scott and her son, Ronald, as well as more than two dozen Franklin Hospital administrators, doctors, nurses, technicians and volunteers.

Barbara Popkin, associate executive director of patient care services, explained that Scott’s donation was not just a gift to Franklin, but to the entire community. Franklin is, after all, the community’s hospital, she explained.

Franklin’s Executive Director, Joseph Manopella, said that Scott is an inspiration to the rest of the staff at the hospital. “We are blessed to have you as part of this health system,” he told her during the ceremony.

Scott, of Roosevelt, said she has felt welcomed at Franklin since her first day on the job nearly 30 years ago. When she was deployed, Scott said she received numerous letters and care packages from the hospital’s staff. “All I was trying to do was just say thank you,” she said, “because everyone’s been so supportive.”

She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s in emergency nursing disaster management. Some nights in the local emergency room, she said, can be more hectic than the Air Force, but not always. “It can get pretty hairy at 35,000 feet, too,” she said.

Willis said the Wall of Heroes will become a permanent fixture in the emergency room. The flag, certificate and picture of Scott will remain. The bottom three frames will include the mission of the hospital, and two heroes each month.

Every month, the emergency room will honor a licensed staff member — doctors and nurses — and a non-licensed staffer such as a technician, secretary or volunteer. Willis said the monthly honors will begin in August. “The criteria,” she said, “is going to be anyone who goes above and beyond the call of duty.”