National Nurses United

Center," says Rizza Valerio, RN, who worked alongside Oldfield on the telemetry unit. "She was a friend to everyone as she had an easygoing attitude. I will miss her Bible verses and positive vibes during huddle. Her kindness will be missed by all, especially her 'tele' family." Another friend, Mindy Risinger, RN, described her in a Fresno Bee interview as "an amazing person." "She was a great nurse, a friend, a sister. She was just a wonderful person all around. She'd drop everything she was doing to pray with you in a moment of crisis. She always took care of everybody. She loved her family, and she loved her coworkers," Risinger told the Bee. Oldfield was hospitalized at Kaiser Fresno on April 8, and was cared for by friends and colleagues, including Amy Arlund, a CNA/NNOC board member. Arlund described Oldfield's death as "devastating" and "unnecessary," and said that Oldfield was a union activist who participated in the fight for personal protective equipment (PPE) at Kaiser Fresno, where administrators locked PPE away from nurses. "The hospital failed to protect them," said Arlund, referring to a group of 50 health care workers at Kaiser Fresno who were exposed to a COVID-19 patient after being forced to wear surgical masks instead of N95 respirators. Oldfield was one of three nurses who were hospitalized from that group. Nurses held a vigil for Oldfield in front of the hospital on May 27. More than 400 people attended to mourn her loss. Friends, family, and colleagues were visibly shaken by Oldfield's death. Tearful attendees said that neither Oldfield's life, dedicated to her patients, colleagues, and her family, nor her death, would ever be forgotten. "What happened to Sandy shouldn't have happened," said registered nurse Rachel Spray. CNA/NNOC and NNU Executive Director Bonnie Castillo honored Oldfield in a statement, saying, "We are bound together in both our grief and our solidarity, our pain and our courage, and…in Sandy's honor, we can, and we WILL win the protections all nurses deserve." Zenei Cortez, a CNA/NNOC and NNU president, and a nurse at Kaiser South San Francisco, encouraged solidarity and action in Oldfield's name to prevent more unnecessary deaths. "Let us stand together and remember Sandy's courage as she advocated for her patients and for nurses' rights, and may we continue to fight in her spirit for a safer hospital for all our patients and for ourselves," said Cortez. —Erin FitzGerald Noel Sinkiat, RN noel sinkiat loved fast cars and fast motorcycles. He had a Porsche 911 that he loved to drive. And he had a 6-month-old grandson he doted on, showing his photo to friend and RN coworker of 36 years, Marilou Rulloda, who also worked in the Howard University Hospital surgical intensive care unit (SICU). "He loved the child. Every morning his son would text him a photo of the baby, and Noel would show it. On the last morning I saw him, he was so happy, and he showed the new picture of his grandson to me." He talked about the toy cars and trucks he planned to buy for the baby. He was one of three nurses who, in 1988, cared for the first liver transplant patient in the Washington, D.C. area, just one of the highlights of his 41-year career as a nurse. But mostly he was steady, dependable, tried and true, keeping everyone on track even through difficult times. "When I was new at Howard, he was the one who welcomed me to the unit. From the start, he was like a brother to me," Rulloda said. Sinkiat knew there were challenges to SICU work. "He told me, 'Whenever you work there will be negative things, but just think of the good things. Just do the best you can, and think of the good things around you.'" Sinkiat, 64, was one of those "good things" on the SICU. Tragically, he was the first National Nurses United/DC Nurses Association member to die of COVID-19 on March 27. It was a devastating loss, to his wife, his family, and the coworkers he befriended and mentored. He'd planned to retire in December. According to an article in the Washington Post, Noel was hospitalized at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center near his home in Olney, Md. What they first thought were allergy symptoms led to difficulty eating and drinking. At MedStar, his condition deteriorated rapidly. His wife, Lourdes Gerardo, was able to see him only briefly, from behind a protective suit, before he died. "A lot of people there at Howard really loved him," Gerardo said in the article. "He was a very good nurse." In a recent interview recalling her husband, Gerardo said she wasn't sure about him when they first met on the SICU, where she also worked as an RN before her retirement. "Our personalities were so opposite. He talked mild and I talked sharp," she said, laughing. Early in their relationship, Lourdes teased him for being a people- pleaser. "That's why they gave him the hard jobs, because he never complained," she said. But she soon learned that he always stood up for what was right. And he stood up for her. Once, a doctor told Gerardo to increase a patient's sedation. "I knew it was way too much, so I told the doctor I wouldn't do it. The doctor cursed me. And then Noel heard the doctor cursing at me, and he told the doctor off," she said. They became close when they started to play tennis together. He was enthusiastic about the game. Sinkiat had been married before and had children from the previous marriage. But he and Gerardo were soon spending more time together. After they were married, they even rode motorcycles together, him at the helm, her holding on behind him. "And then my knees got bad, so he found a group of Filipino guys to ride with," she sasid. He had planned a long motorcycle trip with his buddies after he retired. But Sinkiat passed away before he could go on that trip. It is difficult for Gerardo to talk about the man she loved—the man everyone embraced as friend and mentor. "He was a very good nurse. Almost everyone he meets, they like him," said Gerardo. "Everyone. The housekeepers, the security guards, they really liked him. There are nurses there, traveling nurses, when they heard he died, some of them came to offer condolences." His friend Rulloda agreed that Sinkiat was a wonderful nurse. "In the code, in the emergency, he would be there. He had this compassion to take care of patients. He took care of patients like they were his own family," she said. DC Nurses Association Executive Director Ed Smith, who still represents Howard nurses as a labor representative, said that Sinkiat supported and came to union meetings regularly. "He always asked questions," Smith said. "He was the guy many of his coworkers went to as a mentor and advisor. Nurses looked up to him. He knew his job extremely well. People were devastated when he died." Sinkiat was a dependable mentor and advisor, and a good friend, said Rulloda. "We were a team," Rulloda said. "We were on night A P R I L | M AY | J U N E 2 0 2 0 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 41

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