Members at Brooklyn’s Brookdale Medical Center are reeling after Friday’s vicious attack on 69 year-old RN Evelyn Lynch, who remains in critical condition after being severely beaten by a patient she was caring for on her unit.

“Everyone at Brookdale is very upset about this, especially the nurses who work with her, but all of our hearts go out to her and her family” says LPN Cornetta Samuels, who works in Brookdale’s ER. “When something like this happens it changes everything. You become very guarded. You go from being carefree at work to being very guarded and careful.”

Last year Samuels was assaulted by an agitated psychiatric patient in Brookdale’s ER The patient punched her when she tried to explain why he would have to wait a while longer for a doctor. “Luckily he didn’t hurt me that badly because I have good reflexes,” she says. “But when I heard about what happened to Evelyn I went numb

On Friday afternoon Lynch was attending to patient Kwincii Jones, 40, when he attacked her, beating her until she was unconscious. Lynch was rushed to nearby Kings County Medical Center where she underwent brain surgery and has been listed in critical condition since the attack.

“The hospital is a somber, sad place now,” says radiological technologist Paulette Forbes. “People are just in despair. Everyone feels like it could have been them – a maintenance worker or a doctor – it doesn’t matter. There isn’t a dry eye in Brookdale.”

Forbes says that Union representatives and management have been meeting to discuss new safety initiatives at the hospital and working on the formation of a labor-management committee dedicated to worker safety.

“At this point we’re all just looking to come up with solutions about how to make sure Brookdale is safe for everybody – workers , patients and visitors,” says Forbes. “We are all healthcare workers. We go to work expecting to help people. We are all so pained. We just hope that God’s grace will bring Evelyn safely out of this.”

1199SEIU President George Gresham committed the Union’s support to Lynch and her family, and the entire Brookdale community. Services will include the availability of post-trauma counseling for members.

On February 12, a prayer and candlelight vigil was held for Evelyn Lynch at Brookdale’s Schulman & Schachne Institute For Nursing and Rehabilitation.