14 HOURS: A Tale of Nurses’ Heroism

By Debra Wood, RN, contributor

Time and again, natural disasters bring out the best nursing has to offer, yet the public rarely witnesses the extraordinary courage and commitment these dedicated professionals exhibit during catastrophic events.

The new Turner Network Television movie 14 HOURS changes that, bringing viewers behind the scenes as serious flooding threatens the safety of hundreds of patients at a major Texas medical center.

Based on real events at Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston, 14 HOURS, a Johnson & Johnson Spotlight Presentation^SM,  depicts the fear and anguish as well as tender moments as nurses support each other and reassure patients while water fills the medical center’s underground tunnels and lobby, plunging the enter building in darkness.

“We fell in love with the story and thought it was inspirational about heroes,” said Andrea Higham, director of Johnson & Johnson’s Campaign for Nursing’s Future and corporate equity. “The story tugged at your heart strings. The fact it was based on a true story was even more exciting. I thought it was wonderful and an opportunity to show nurses in heroic situations.”

Johnson & Johnson’s Campaign for Nursing’s Future, developed in conjunction with national nursing organizations, aims to attract more people to nursing and support the profession. Spotlight Presentations represent an effort by Johnson & Johnson to bring original, family-friendly programming to prime-time television.

Higham indicated that although the company would likely have sponsored the movie even if it was not actively working with nursing organizations, the movie offered another way to get the message out about nursing. Johnson & Johnson will air its Discover Nursing commercials during the program, which debuts April 3, 2005 at 8 p.m., Eastern and Pacific time.

Poignant and suspenseful, 14 HOURS begins calmly, with the lead character leaving for work with a cake for a departing fellow nurse, resigning from the neonatal intensive care unit for more regular hours and better money at an HMO. She arrives and learns everyone will work short staffed that night, both familiar situations to nurses across the country.

Before long, Tropical Storm Allison, which had pummeled the area with wind and rain for days, returns to the city, dumping more rain. Underground tunnels, laboratories and rooms fill with water.

When the hospital loses electricity, back-up generators kick on, only to shut down as water floods the lower levels, where the generators are located. Telephones, ventilators, IV pumps and other equipment cease to work.

Surgeries continue with the operative field illuminated with a flashlight and nurses begin manually bagging neonates and adults. Throughout the events personal story lines show nurses making judgment calls to support their patients’needs.

When oxygen starts to run low and no one at the government emergency management office knows when power may be restored, the hospital decides to evacuate. Volunteers from throughout the community pitch in to carry patients down stairs as air and ground ambulances line up to transport them to other facilities.

“It re-enforces your belief inhumanity,” Higham said. “Intrinsically, I think we’re all good and can work together to make a significant difference in people’s lives.”

The characters and situations portrayed in the movie represent a compilation of real health professionals and how they managed the crisis. Scriptwriter Danilo Bach met with doctors, nurses and volunteers who lived through the storm. He tried to include as much of the dialogue as they could recall.

Janine Mazabob, RN, BSN, MA, CCRN, operations director at Memorial Hermann’s eICU, spoke with Bach, recalling her actions as director of neuroscience services during the flooding. She admits to being a little nervous about the filmmaking process.

“I was pleased and nervous, pleased that the information about what we did was going to be told to a vast array of people,” Mazabob said. “But I was cautious, because it is Hollywood. I had great respect for the screenwriter and the essence of what they verbally said they would do.”

During the evacuation, Mazabob assisted in triaging patients, determining who would leave first and to what hospital they would go. She kept track of patients using stickers, which she stuck to her scrubs, just as depicted in the movie.

Kindness and support from the community and former patients’ families kept Mazabob’s spirits up during the ordeal. She knew she couldn’t let people down. People cheered as team members wheeled the last patient into an ambulance, in real life and the movie.

“What we did was phenomenal and spoke to what a hospital team is about,” said Mazabob, crediting the hospital’s culture of respect and dignity. “At a time when there are critical nursing shortages, we need to let people hear stories of what nurses can do and what nurses with physicians can do as a team.”

Memorial Hermann spokesperson Jamie O’Roark said Mazabob was one of many nurses who emerged as leaders during the actual event.

“We’re pleased they made the movie and have memorialized the event,” O’Roark said. “It’s another way of honoring the nurses.”

O’Roark expressed some disappointment that the limitations of time precluded everyone’s stories from being told and that the movie did not accurately portray administration’s role in deciding to evacuate the hospital. But overall, the positives outweigh the missed opportunities.

“While we’re highlighting one particular hospital, I’m sure there are stories like that that took place in Florida last year,” Higham said. “Stories of heroism take place all over the country and the world. I think [nurses] should watch this movie and react in a way which is, ‘I am seeing one example in Houston, but this is the kind of stuff I do on a daily basis.’”

Even for those familiar with the Memorial Hermann story, the movie keeps viewers on the edge of their seats. As nurses across Florida learned last year, they may be but one storm away from a catastrophic natural event. But through it all, nurses persist, never wavering from providing the best care possible for their patients.

“It’s important for people to see nurses as strong advocates for their patients and patient safety,” Mazabob said. “Memorial Hermann is not the only place that has done these fantastic, unique things. To tell our story, to me was trying to tell all of our stories.”

© 2005. AMN Healthcare, Inc. All Rights Reserved.