Northwell Health has awarded its first Michelle Pinto Spirit of Empathetic Courage Award to an employee who trained to use the overdose reversal nasal spray Naloxone and then helped make a Narcan save on the side of the Long Island Expressway just six weeks later.
The honor was a highlight of the health system’s “Empowering Conversations Summit: a Focus on Substance Use,” a day-long conference at Northwell’s corporate headquarters on November 5. The event featured Northwell team members who shared their personal and professional insights on the impact of substance use on themselves, their families, their patients and team member community.
Michelle Di Bona, an operating room booker at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, earned the Pinto Spirit Award after she saw a car crash into the median on the LIE on October 7 and stopped to help. The man was unconscious from a suspected drug overdose. She immediately knew what to do. Ms. Di Bona took part in Northwell Health’s Overdose Awareness Day event at the end of August. About 3,300 Narcan kits were distributed to employees system-wide, including one that Ms. Di Bona placed in her car…