The 2013 An Evening With the Stars gala featured the inaugural Cynthia and Peter Rosenwald Star Nurse of the Year award, established to recognize nurses working in John Hopkins Hospital’s intensive care units who go above and beyond the call of duty.
Winner Mandalyn “Mandy” Schwarz, RN, is a senior nurse in the Weinberg Intensive Care Unit at Hopkins Hospital. “Mandy is the nurse that I would want to take care of me and anyone in my family if they ever became ill,” a longtime colleague said in the nomination, calling Schwarz a “quiet” hero. “She is an exceptional role model to all new nurses.”
In a speech at the gala, Peter Rosenwald described his “terror and embarrassment” during a stay in a Hopkins ICU with internal bleeding—”blood flowing out and in, in what seemed to be equal parts” as the team fought to save him. Rosenwald said he will be forever grateful for the care and empathy of the nurses, the reason he sought to establish the award, which carries a $5,000 prize (“a little something extra for nurses like them”).
He thanked the team of nurses once more, then quipped, “And don’t take this personally, but I never want to see any of you again.”