Doctor, nurses honored for heroism on flights

Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2001 | 9:36 a.m.

A Sunrise Hospital Medical Center doctor and three emergency room nurses were honored Tuesday with the hospital's "Hero Award" for assisting ailing passengers aboard planes on which the hospital staffers also were passengers.

The rescues aboard different flights on the same day are said to be the first such in-flight dual rescues in airline history.

Dr. Michael Brown, a former firefighter and a Sunrise emergency room physician, and his co-workers were returning to Las Vegas from New York after attending the funeral of Brown's brother Patrick, a New York City fire captain killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when the first incident occurred.

He and Sunrise nurses Lois Hale, Troy Repuszka and Ellen Garcia, jumped into action after a passenger had a seizure. They convinced the crew to make an emergency landing in Columbus, Ohio. There, the four boarded a plane to Las Vegas, where a woman went into cardiac arrest, requiring their assistance.

The Sunrise staffers were able to stabilize the woman in flight, although she later died.

The award was given in recognition of the four Sunrise employee's efforts "to go above and beyond the call of duty to extend care and compassion to those beyond the hospital's walls."

Brown credited his brother's spirit for guiding him and the nurses in their life-saving efforts.