Navy Nurse Honored with Vietnam Vets Changes/Corrections
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Official Newsletter of New Hampshire Nurses Association Quarterly publication direct mailed to approximately 23,000 Registered Nurses, LPNs, and LNAs in New Hampshire. July 2016 www.NHNurses.org Vol. 40 No. 3 Please be sure to notify us with address Navy Nurse Honored with Vietnam Vets changes/corrections. We have a very large list to keep updated. If the nurse listed no Ann Darby Reynolds of Exeter, French door when a 200-pound bomb in a panel truck longer lives at this address–please notify us to one of the first women in the went off in the Brink’s garage. The door blew into the Navy to receive a Purple Heart discontinue delivery. Thank You! room and glass broke on top of Reynolds, cutting her in the Vietnam War, was among in the leg. Since she was on call that evening, her first dozens of Vietnam veterans thought was, “Oh boy. Hospital OR [operating room] Please call (603) 225-3783 or email honored at a breakfast April 25, call. Here we go!” Dazed, Reynolds tried to go to her to [email protected] with 2016, commemorating the 50th bedroom to retrieve her sneakers but was ordered to anniversary of the war held at the Nursing News in the subject line. evacuate by another officer. She noticed fire and smoke Veterans Administration Medical as she made her way to the building’s courtyard, and Center. The commemoration then tried to assist the victims. When the ambulances extends from Memorial Day arrived, she got into the first one and took some patients 2012 through Veterans Day 2025. to the hospital six miles away. Reynolds had no idea One of its objectives is to thank she was bleeding until a corpsman said, “You need to Vietnam veterans, including Ann Darby Reynolds be sutured so I am putting a suture set aside for you.” prisoners of war and those listed Reynolds worked on patients until everyone was taken as missing in action, for their service and sacrifice on behalf of Index care of before requesting that her leg be examined. Navy Nurse Honored. .1 the United States. Report from Governor’s Commission ........2 Reynolds graduated in 1961 from St. Anselm College and Reynolds continued when interviewed by The Union Leader President’s Message ....................3 arrived in Vietnam in February 1964. She was the youngest noted “I was going on adrenaline. I was focused and went Navy Nurse at the Station Hospital Saigon. Her story has been right down to the operating room with those two patients,” she Save the Date! ........................3 chronicled on the Naval History blog (www.navalhistory.org); said. The rest of the hospital staff came in behind her and all PPI and Clostridium Difficile Infection .....4-5 and featured in the Navy Magazine “All Hands” in March went to work. As she was being treated, another patient, who In My Opinion .........................6 2011 (http://www.moaa-nh.org/All_Hands_Mar_11.pdf) she knew from mealtimes in the cafeteria, was put beside her. “He didn’t survive,” she said, her eyes tearing up. “I This Month in Nursing History .............7 still remember his last words – ‘Don’t let me die.’ That was From the Bookshelf .....................7 Lieutenant (junior grade) Ann Darby spent much of her Christmas morning. That was not a good Christmas.” time in Saigon working late night shifts in the surgical In Memory of Our Colleagues ...........8-9 ward or the intensive care unit. When she wasn’t treating The Brink BOQ bombing destroyed three floors of the KUDOS. 10 the wounded, she was marching up and down the hotel’s building, killing two U.S. servicemen and injuring 63 five flights of stairs delivering food to patients. Even on Americans, an Australian Army officer, and 43 Vietnamese Eta Iota Sigma Theta Tau Chapter News ....10 her days off, Darby devoted precious time hunting down civilians. Four Navy nurses in the building, including Humor Me. 11 scarce hospital supplies at various Saigon apothecaries, Reynolds, were wounded in the attack and each one insisted often paying for items with her own money. on treating victims at the scene and helping with disaster Welcome New and Returning Members .....11 Reynolds shared an apartment with three other nurses response before tending to their own injuries. In recognition of School News. 12 being injured during war and for her courageous service to our in the Brink Bachelor Officers Quarters (BOQ) – a NCLEX Reconsidered ..................13 drab seven story hotel leased by the Navy to provide country, Reynolds was one of four Navy nurses who received housing for American officers in Saigon. Commander the Purple Heart during the Vietnam War. Student Nurse Conference 2016 ..........14 Ann Richman, the head nurse, instructed Navy nurses Letters to the Editor ...................15 to always travel in pairs and never leave their quarters Reynolds remained in Vietnam until March 1965. She after dark. “We heard that they had a price on the continued her Navy career earning the senior rank of Captain Board of Nursing News .................17 heads of the medical personnel,” Reynolds later told and serving as the Chief Nurse at several Naval Hospitals. She What Does 72 Cents Buy in 2016 .........19 retired in 1988 serving for over 26 years. In 2013 St. Anselm’s an historian, “A nurse was worth $25 dollars and a Membership Application ................19 physician was worth $50.” awarded Reynolds the Alumni Award of Merit for her life- long devotion to the nursing profession and for providing On Christmas Eve, 1964, Reynolds stood in her living quality health care. room and gazed across the street hoping to see Bob Hope, who had just arrived in town for his annual Christmas tour. She had her face pressed against a On May 13, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Naval Appropriations Bill, establishing Presort Standard the Nurse Corps as an essential component of the Navy. Since then, the men and women of the Nurse US Postage Corps have served in times of peace and war, at home, overseas and on the front lines. From the first PAID Navy nurses in 1908, to 4,200 Navy nurses serving today, the Nurse Corps has answered the call, Permit #14 often at great sacrifice, to care for those entrusted to us when they need us most. In 1921, 11 Navy Princeton, MN Nurses became the first military women to serve aboard a hospital ship, the USS Relief. In 1972, a current resident or 55371 Navy nurse, Alene Duerk, was the first woman in the Navy to achieve flag rank. An integral part of the Navy Medicine team, Navy nurses fly with wounded; provide care for the fleet and aboard hospital ships; establish nursing schools, clinics, and small hospitals in remote locations; and serve in military treatment facilities worldwide. Navy nurses are scientists, teachers, researchers, providers and clinicians and are essential to force health protection and readiness. – Taken from a 108th Birthday Salute from Vice Admiral Forrest Faison, Surgeon General Page 2 • New Hampshire Nursing News July, August, September 2016 Guidelines for Submissions to NH Nursing News NURSING NEWS NH Nursing News (NHNN) is the official publication of as attachments to [email protected] the NH Nurses’ Association (NHNA), published quarterly – with NN Submission in the subject Vol. 40 No. 3 and available in PDF format at our website: www.nhnurses. line. Official publication of the New Hampshire Nurses’ org Views expressed are solely those of the guest authors or Association (NHNA), a constituent member of the persons quoted and do not necessarily reflect NHNA views or Publication Selection and Rights: American Nurses Association. Published quarterly those of the publisher, Arthur L. Davis Publishing Agency, Inc. 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