Tonight, the largest nurse and health care professional union in Massachusetts is holding vigils across the commonwealth to honor Alex Pretti. The 37-year-old intensive care nurse – a union member represented by the Am0erican Federation of Government Employees – worked for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs before he was shot dead by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday – making him the second person to be killed by federal agents in the city in less than a month. Massachusetts Nurses Association President and ICU nurse Katie Murphy tells WAMC Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes that tonight’s memorials in Boston, Worcester, and Western Massachusetts will honor Pretti’s life and clearly vocalize the union’s outrage over his death.
WAMC: The Massachusetts Nurses Association is one of the largest labor unions in the commonwealth. What can you tell us about the membership of your union and the kind of work that the professionals included in it do?
MURPHY: We represent over 26,000 nurses and health care professionals. I have to emphasize that, because more and more health care professionals who are working in home care, advanced practice, PT, physical therapists, occupational therapists. So, more and more people are joining us. We are bedside health care providers. When you put on the call bell, we're the ones who answer. And we're from one end of the state to the other, and out on the islands. And I, you know what I used to say- We’re on land, we're in the air with Medflight, and until Tufts got rid of Floating Hospital, we were on the water.
Now, today, the union is holding these memorials across the commonwealth for the late ICU nurse Alex Pretti. Tell us about ICU nurses- I mean, they're really on the front lines of some of the most intense responses the healthcare system can offer. What kind of work does an ICU nurse expect to see over the course of a given shift?
Well, I am an ICU nurse, and I really think that nurses and healthcare professionals everywhere- I mean, think about it. If you're in labor and delivery, the stress is so high. If you're in the emergency room, you're just sitting there, never knowing what will come in the door. But if you're in intensive care, these are the sickest patients in the hospital. They need that one-on-one care. They have multiple systems that are failing- Their hearts are failing, their lungs are failing, their kidneys are failing, often all at the same time. They're on a lot of advanced life support, we're working literally minute by minute to keep them alive. And that's what Alex was doing. And his patients were veterans.
A lot of people across both the nation and across the world have expressed dismay, outrage, and grief over Alex Pretti’s death. What is the MNA’s stance on what happened to him in Minneapolis?
We feel exactly the same way. We're horrified and we're grief stricken. Without a doubt, that's really what I'm hearing from people. We consider- He's one of us, both because he's a bedside nurse, he's also a union member- And he's caring for veterans. So, we really feel like he's one of us. We feel, I have to tell you- We really are the ones who run towards the explosion. And I can say that being in hospitals for the last 50 years, that is what we do. And so, when he saw that somebody was thrown to the ground, that was like his impulse, that was his training, that was his ethics, that you go and help. And so that's exactly what he was doing. And all of us see ourselves in Alex.
Across Massachusetts, the MNA is going to acknowledge Alex Pretti with memorials held in Boston, Worcester, in Northampton and Leeds out in Western Mass- Tell us about this. What are you trying to communicate to the broader community, and how are you trying to remember the life and legacy of Alex Pretti?
That it’s so important. I think this really was people, nurses at the bedside, just run of the mill, saying, you know what, I have to acknowledge this, I have to put my grief someplace. And what a way to stand up and say, you’re not forgotten, we saw what you did, and we want to acknowledge your name, your life, the work that you did. And I think these are near VA hospitals, right? So, we're even trying to make that connection.
As far as the union's broader thoughts on where things stand with the Trump administration and how the actions in Minneapolis and Alex Pretti’s death reflect the state of the nation- What are your broader thoughts on, sort of where we are as a country in the wake of Alex's death?
Well, we are helpers, we're healers. And so, this is anathema to us. This is a democracy. It's a place of free speech, where people can disagree, we can have different thoughts, but we have respectful dialogue. I mean, we do that all the time. So, we feel that we're headed in the wrong direction, and we feel that we're somebody that, we're an association that has something to say about it, because that could be any of us, and it could be our communities, what we see happening in Minneapolis- Armed troops on the streets, and these were people who were just walking on the sidewalks. I mean, we are a nation of immigrants, are we not? I'm the granddaughter of immigrants on my father's side. So, we're all immigrants, and we all have contributed to the strength of this country. Our members really believe that. We believe that this is this is one of our strengths. Our diversity has made us stronger, and we don't want to see that disappear.
The MNA’s Western Massachusetts memorial for Alex Pretti will start at 7:30 at the Northampton VA Medical Center in Leeds.
