Longtime ER nurse leaves legacy of caring
Brad Isaac’s last words to his daughter were about nursing, about duty and about love – all things that defined the life of the longtime nurse.
The 46-year-old charge nurse at Community Regional Medical Center’s emergency department died in a multi-car accident May 12 on Highway 99 in Chowchilla. Two others were killed as well in the 6:40 p.m. crash. His wife Terri Isaac, a nurse at another hospital, survived the accident and was recovering at Community Regional.
Daughter Nicole Boragno said she had called her father as she was getting off her shift Saturday morning as a trauma nurse at Community Regional. “I was asking him for dad advice and professional advice,” she said. “He told me ‘You’re a good nurse. Keep your confidence up. I love you and I’m proud of you…Just do it by the book and it will be fine.'”
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| Brad Isaac, R.N. started a 10-year tradition of Sunday potlucks for the emergency department staff. |
Brad Isaac worked more than 20 years for Community Medical Centers, starting as security guard at the downtown hospital when it was known as Fresno Community and then moving to unit clerk. Boragno said her father worked two jobs while going to school to become a nurse. He worked his way up through the University Medical Center trauma and emergency department and moved with the staff in April when acute services transferred to Community Regional.
His dedication inspired three of his four children to follow in his footsteps. One son, Brendan Isaac, works as an EMT in Clovis and another son Jacob Isaac works in Community Regional’s X-ray department. A third son, Marshall Gregory, is a teacher.
“He inspired me. I’m a trauma nurse because of him,” Boragno said. “I saw him treat people who were poor and normally got treated like dirt as if it was his brother or dad.”
Colleagues at Community said Isaac was a by-the-book nurse who also created a family atmosphere for his staff. He started a 10-year tradition of Sunday potlucks, first at University Medical Center and then at Community Regional after his staff moved over with the rest of the trauma and emergency services. Jerry Harder, an ED charge nurse, said every other Sunday when he worked, Isaac would bring meat and set up a grill on the lawn or back patio at UMC while others would bring side dishes.
Nurse Patty Wong and Harder said Isaac was infamous for his sharp wit and corny jokes. “Brad had a dry humor. Brad didn’t have a black humor,” Wong said, adding that often those dealing daily with others’ life and death injuries resort to such jokes to break the tension. But not Issac, she said.
Harder agreed. In a Level 1 trauma center that sees the worst accident and gunshot victims from a nine-county region, he said, “Brad never said anything bad about any people. I never actually remember him swearing about anything either…Brad had a way with words.”
Staff saw him as a father figure, said Wong, who worked more than two decades with Isaac. “Someone like Brad – a charge nurse – saw everyone who was working on a shift…It’s like losing a dad or an uncle or a brother.”
Community’s ED administration came in to help console staff and call others so they would get the news before they came to work, Wong said. There are a lot of nurses on the verge of tears trying to follow what Isaac would tell them to do – focus on their patients, she added.
Boragno said since her father’s death, she’s been amazed at how many people he had touched. She knew the UMC staff was close knit, but in the 27 days he worked with the Community Regional ED staff at least four claimed him as a “good friend.”
“In 27 days, that he made that kind of impression on them, I think says a lot about his character,” Boragno said. “'Everybody’s best friend' is what we’re going to put on his headstone.”
In memory of the wry, fatherly, by-the-book nurse who everybody called friend, Community colleagues are holding a Sunday potluck in Isaac’s honor at the downtown hospital. The family invites the community to graveside services at 2 p.m., May 22, at Clovis Cemetery, followed by a celebration of Isaac’s life at 3:30 p.m. at Valley Christian Center.
Erin Kennedy reported this story. She can be reached at ekennedy@communitymedical.org