Mr. Madera and Ms. Gornicz were the first to arrive in a patients' room, where a small fire had been started by a patient a little after 9PM on May 1, 2015,

1. News From:
For Immediate Release May 6, 2016
Contact: Damian Becker, Manager of Media Relations
(516) 377-5370
Photo Caption: Jose Madera (third from the left) with Nassau County Executive Edward
Mangano (to his right) was honored by the Nassau County Fire Commission with its 2016
Civilian Award during a ceremony Wednesday (4/27) at the Nassau County Firefighters Museum
in Garden City
Two South Nassau Employees Honored For Life-Saving
Actions By Nassau County Fire Commission
Oceanside, NY— Two South Nassau Communities Hospital employees – Anna Gornicz
and Jose Madera - were honored by the Nassau County Fire Commission with its 2016 Civilian
Award for their heroic and swift action to extinguish a fire in a patient care area of the hospital.
Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and fire officials presented the awards
during a ceremony Wednesday (4/27) at the Nassau County Firefighters Museum in Garden City.
“South Nassau is proud and thankful that Anna and Jose followed their training to
bravely and rapidly act to protect patients,” said Richard J. Murphy, South Nassau’s President &
CEO. “We always say we put patients first at South Nassau. The actions of Jose and Anna
demonstrated that commitment in a crisis situation.”
Nassau fire officials also lauded their actions. “The [Fire] Commission finds that the
actions and service of Ms. Gornicz and Mr. Madera at this incident were commendable and in
the highest traditions of service to one’s fellow man, and we extend our sincere congratulations
to them,” added James Mezey, Jr., Chairman, Nassau County Fire Commission.
A little after 9 p.m. on May 1, 2015, Mr. Madera (a resident of Freeport) who had been
arranging chairs in the hospital’s Conference Center, responded to the piercing sound of a smoke
alarm coming from the first floor of the hospital. He and Ms. Gornicz (a resident of West

2. Hempstead) were the first to arrive in a patients’ room, where a small fire had been started by a
patient who set fire to plastic items on a patient over-bed table.
Working in concert with other hospital staff members, Ms. Gornicz and Mr. Madera
organized a seamless and safe evacuation of the patients--who were unharmed—into the
hallway. Then Ms. Gornicz and Mr. Madera went back into the room with a blanket to smother
the flames and a fire extinguisher to put out the fire. After extinguishing the fire, Gornicz and
Madera quickly and astutely closed the patient room door to limit smoke from spreading
throughout the patient care unit and impacting other any patient.
“Were it not for the appropriate actions by Anna Gornicz and Jose Madera, there may
have been a worse outcome for both patients and possibly others,” said Joseph Mihalich, South
Nassau’s director of Facilities Management.
For Mr. Madera, an Environmental Services Lead Aide who joined South Nassau 27
years ago, ensuring that patients are out of harm’s way is a priority. “When the patients are safe,
you feel happy,” he said.
Designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC),
South Nassau® Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 455 beds,
more than 900 physicians and 3,000 employees. Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an
acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac,
oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services. In
addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and
elective angioplasty, and is the only hospital on Long Island with the Novalis Tx™ and Gamma
Knife® radiosurgery technologies. South Nassau is a designated Stroke Center by the New York
State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the American
College of Surgeons and is an accredited center of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery
Association and Quality Improvement Program. In addition, the hospital has been awarded the
Joint Commission’s gold seal of approval as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures,
including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, perinatal care and surgical care; and disease-
specific care for hip and joint replacement, wound care and end-stage renal disease. For more
information, visit www.southnassau.org.
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