 So I would like to officially welcome everyone to our Tracy Morgan Nursing Excellence Award presentation. I wanna thank Tracy for being here, but not only for being here today, Tracy, but for shining a bright light on rehabilitation nursing today and every day. You have been such an inspiration to our team and all of our staff. And from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for being here today and we thank you for all that you do. Thank you. Before we get started, we have two videos that we prepared that we think everyone will enjoy and they really talk about how important Tracy Morgan is to us, not only here at Hackensack Meridian, but around the country. And then a little video about Tracy's journey, which again, you are such an inspiration, Tracy. So thank you. The one and only Tracy Morgan. You're an international celebrity from 30 Rock, that show's shown all around the world. Let me hear you say, we love you, Tracy! We love you, Tracy! Please welcome the very funny Tracy Morgan. I'm out here living, I'm just doing my thing. I will show you more about it. What is it like to work with that man? He's a man child. He's the best of the most generous person. He's a man child. Here's the funny, the entertaining Tracy Morgan. Come on a section. Uh-huh, you are. A symbol. That's a cool dude right there, man. All my life celebrated, like Ann and Nicole Smith, Richard Nixon, somebody big. He was hilarious right out the gate. That's Tracy. That's Jackie. Aww, look at you. So proud of you, really. Next to the people that was in that room, Mom came out, Mom. Uh-huh. That's the thing that's been right here, and this one right here, and this one right here. And the lights went out. And tonight, she turned off the lights, and she wouldn't even look at me, she said everything's gonna be all right. She would take me outside Bianca, and read, and let me be outside the room in the air. These are all the people that took care of me when I was down on my back. Okay. Wow, you're out here, man. I got you. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to welcome and present Mr. Tracy Morgan. How you doing, guys? My name is Tracy Morgan. I was born as a patient at the hospital, and I'm here to talk about it. And to let you guys know, you have a great staff and a great team around you to have faith and trust in the system and believe in the process, and you'll make it. Because I'm here. Now, don't let it get me down. Sometime a setback is a set up with some greater things that happen. Just never lose hope, and understand that you have a great staff for doctors and nurses around you doing the best that they could do to make things better for us. I am personally appreciative of it, and I know you will be too. Thanks, man. It's so important for us to. If you know how I feel about you, Dr. Greenwall. Thanks, bro. Whenever I see you, I want to get choked up, and I want to do that right now. Give me some tissue. It's a big part of my life. This is the most important part of my life. Hi, Tracy. I look good for you. You look great. I remember you used to take me outside to read to me. Okay, it's all right. I remember that. I'm so proud of you. Thank you. I'm so proud of you. Thank you. And I want to personally thank you for being an inspiration to so many of our head injury patients. You have no idea how many times our head injured patients, when they hear that you were here and they see how successful you are, they say, Tracy was here, I can do it. I'm going to recover. He gives me that strength. So thank you for that. And also our nurses are our heroes and you have every year come here and showed the respect to them, showed, honored them. And we have this Tracy Morgan Nursing Award and we're so fortunate that you come personally and give this award out because it means so much to the whole rehab institution. So thank you, thank you so much for that. Thank you. Thanks, man. Great to see you. So just wonderful, so satisfying for everybody to see you doing so well as you're doing. It's a miracle to be a senior in the Super Bowl, coming to America too. All these great things. Well, you were the one that told me to trust in the process. Because after I got hit, my trust, I didn't trust anyone because we got hit from behind. We didn't get hit. We didn't see that coming. So that's like somebody's scaring you for a long time. And you always told me, trust us, trust us, trust. The word trust, when you trust your nurses, your doctors, things get better and then you have to do the fighting too. I believe, for me, the key was believing what you and Nurse Jackie would say to me and the staff coming around, take care of me every day. Then I just started to believe in trust in the system. Believing you would always trust the process. You must, you must. Because things can get better. So how important was humor as a part of your recovery? It's the greatest medicine. Everything that ever happened to me bad in my life, I turned funny. That's what helped me heal. I guess it helps the brain heal faster when you're laughing, when you're releasing endorphins. And I just, I thank God that he gave me a sense of humor to share with the world, to help them heal. That's a good thing. That's a beautiful thing. That's my gift. And I had that in me and maybe I can share that with others. We are very grateful that you're giving out this award. What does it mean to you that you still continue on to give us this award? I'm just giving back what was given to me. Besides my mother and my daughter, you're one of the most important females in my life. You do it with me every day, by my side holding my hand, even when I was angry. That means a lot. I'm not giving anybody, I'm just passing it on. God gave me a business and y'all help me take care of it. I'm so happy to be giving away this award and I will always be grateful to you and the staff at that hospital, at that rehabilitation. I will always be thankful and grateful. Let me tell you something, man. I could have gave up hope, but I had people around me like you and Dr. Greenwald, Anthony. I had people around me, I had y'all. And I'm here to tell those in the rehab now with brain injuries, you have to trust them. Dr. Greenwald and Jack never lied to me. They never lied to me. They never lied to me, my baby was a baby. I gotta be here for them, they kept telling me, those Jackie especially, think about your daughter. She needs you, not for it. You don't just come out no coma, you gotta fight. The fight is on now. I think the public would wanna know. So after you discharged and you moved on and you got better, you could have just continued with your career, but you didn't choose to do that. You chose to become an advocate for rehabilitative care and for rehab nursing. And while we appreciate that so much, why do you do it? It's something that I think the public would really wanna know. And you graciously do this year after year after year for us. Why is a rhetorical question? Why? That's the reason. How about why not? How about why not? God put me in this business just for a reason. I'm not gonna question that. I'm just gonna do what I gotta do. And that's help other people. Spread love, spread hope. That's why I'm here. That's why you kept me here. In the world we live in today, we need the light. I know what I'm doing. I know why I'm here to help those who are less fortunate because I was in that position and I had you and I had y'all. So it's time for me to give that back and pay it forward. And if that's what the Lord has for me, since I came out that coma, it's so big because I found myself doing it and I'm not questioning it. I don't just not doing it for y'all. I give a fool to people on a daily basis now. It's bigger than show business to me. Show business is just the light he put me in. There's a bigger purpose for me than I know it. But I really wanna take the time out to come to the hospital and see the patients. We would love that. We would absolutely love that. All of this, I wanna have a way it's nothing. Two hours out of my life ain't gonna hurt me. I would love to come down here and just see the people. I'm not God, but I would like to just give to them the inspiration I'm here. If I inspire others to get better and see another day and heal, then I'm doing my job. That's it. I'm doing my job. God spared my life, not just for show business but for real business. I see people like y'all out there doing it, doing it, helping people every day. And now, if you wouldn't mind, we'd like you to announce our Tracy Morgan Nursing Excellence Award winner for this year. Patricia Buzempem, congratulations. You have the Tracy Morgan Nursing Award of the year. Here's to Patricia. Bless you, Patricia. Thank you for all that you do for the patients. One day I wanna meet you. I really appreciate you. I appreciate your work. And thank God for you and God bless you and your family. I'm quite sure all those patients just you hurt feel the same way. Even if they're not in a position to say it, I'm saying it for them. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. To them, you are their nurse Jackie. Thank you, Tracy. Thank you for saying that. And I'm really honored to receive this award. Sometimes in life, we need people to lift you up and you guys have done it for me. So thank you. And for you doing your own thing, being able to get out of BTU, to go do everything that you did. That's why we're there. So thank you. I'm really honored for this. And I will never forget it. I will treasure it. And I will never stop talking about it to one and everybody in BTU. Thank you for this award. I really appreciate it and may God bless you all. Thank you. Love you. Anyone who saw the commercial with Tracy Morgan during the most recent Super Bowl knows his talent for comedy remains as strong as ever. He regained his talents despite a very serious brain injury. I am certain the skill of his physicians, therapists and nurses at JFK Johnson as well as Tracy's own determination all contributed to his amazing recovery. We're grateful to have JFK Johnson and JFK Medical Center as part of the Hackensack Meridian Health family. We are so thankful to Tracy Morgan for continuing to support the team members at our Center for Brain Injuries and to once again, present the Tracy Morgan Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation Nursing to one of our nurses. Tracy has generously shared his own story of recovery and inspired so many others. I remember early in Tracy's recovery, he feared that he had lost his ability to make people laugh. So he would try out material on my staff and me and we were in stitches. I remember laughing and telling Tracy, you will be back on stage making people laugh. Today, Tracy continues to succeed in what he wants to do in life. That's what we want for all of our patients. I am so proud to join the voices thanking Tracy Morgan for highlighting the skills, talents and dedication of the team members at JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute. JFK Johnson is an integral part of Hackensack Meridian Health and JFK Medical Center. Our acute care hospital together with JFK Johnson provides a continuum of care that can support patients on every step of their journey to recovery and maximum function. By presenting this award, Tracy is honoring this specialized training, skills and dedication of rehabilitation nurses everywhere. Rehabilitation nurses design and implement treatment strategies and advance the physical and emotional health of their patients. Rehabilitation nurses were essential to Tracy's recovery. Today, rehabilitation nurses help the tens of thousands of Americans hospitalized each year with brain injuries. At the JFK Johnson Center for Brain Injuries, we bring together physicians who are board certified in brain injury medicine and specially trained and highly experienced therapists and nurses. We take a holistic approach and every person is an individual, not a diagnosis. On this Brain Injury Awareness Month, we are excited about the focus on our Center for Brain Injuries. People who have experienced a traumatic brain injury or illness can move seamlessly. If necessary, from trauma center rehabilitation, to the brain trauma unit, to our extended recovery unit, and finally to outpatient, comprehensive neuro rehabilitation, where brain injury certified physicians work hand in hand with highly specialized and certified nurses, therapists, and other professionals, all with the same goal to advance what's possible for every one of our patients. This year's Tracy Morgan Award for Rehabilitation Nursing Excellence goes to Patricia Buzumbem. Patricia joins previous honorees, Jackie Ciricella, Juan Ramirez, and Gina Domingo, all exemplifying the highest standards of rehabilitation nursing. Patricia is a certified rehabilitation registered nurse who has been a dedicated member of our brain trauma unit at JFK Johnson Center for Brain Injuries for more than 21 years. Patricia is highly skilled and experienced. She is meticulous in her duties as the performance improvement representative and she is a kind and patient mentor to our new nurses, always helping them navigate the challenging behaviors that our brain injury patients sometimes exhibit. Those behaviors can be overwhelming at times, but Patricia approaches these challenges peacefully, creating an environment of learning, not fear. Creativity, flexibility, and a good sense of humor is almost necessary when working on a brain trauma unit where even the best laid out plans for the day can change in just a second. Patricia has those virtues and so much more. The combination of experience, knowledge, and compassion is the secret sauce for getting patients back to everything that they deserve. We are proud that we're one of 16 federally designated traumatic brain injury model system sites in the whole United States. To see Tracy today at the height of his comedic power, entertaining audiences everywhere is so rewarding to all of us who have been a part of his amazing journey to recovery. Thank you, Tracy, for shining a light on our work here at the JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute and most of all, for giving our patients and their families inspiration and hope. Thank you again to Tracy and congratulations to Nurse Patricia. This award means so much to our rehab nursing professionals who give everything to assure that each patient achieves the highest level of functioning. We are grateful to have Patricia as part of our team. Thank you, Tracy, for presenting this meaningful award. I want to congratulate Nurse Patricia on her honor and we all want to thank Tracy for showing the world what's possible for people with brain injuries. Thank you to Tracy for continuing to support rehabilitation nurses and congratulations to Nurse Patricia for winning this honor. I am humbled by the skill and dedication of our frontline heroes. Your commitment to our patients, especially during this pandemic, has been extraordinary. It's an honor to join you in the celebration of the Tracy Morgan Award. On behalf of Hackensack Meridian Health, I'm thankful to Tracy for sharing his story which inspires patients everywhere. As Tracy says, I'm not pretty sure, I'm certain his story is helping people. We're proud to have JFK Health and the JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute as part of Hackensack Meridian's family. The JFK Johnson Center for Brain Injuries is a jewel providing the highest level of care for people throughout the region. It's among the top-rank rehab centers in the entire nation. Congratulations to Nurse Patricia Bozampend who is so deserving of the Tracy Morgan Award. Patricia has the experience, the skills and the talents needed for this difficult and highly specialized work. She exemplifies the very best of the nursing profession. Thank you all so much. Congratulations and I could not be more proud of our world-class nurses. Stay blessed, know that I love all y'all and thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for me and my kids and Megan. We love you, thank you. It feels so good to be here. I was in a terrible car accident a year ago. It was awful, but it also showed me how much love and support I have in this world. When I came out to coma, my whole family came to the hospital to visit me just to tell me they love me. When I came back from the hospital, we filmed a movie called Fist Fight in Atlanta and the people of Atlanta just embraced me and I was scared and I didn't know if I still had it. Dramatic brain damage. For many people, your story in real life was inspiring because we all rooted for you. Everyone was like, we can't not have Tracy Morgan in our lives. You bring joy to people's lives. Thanks to my amazing doctors and the support of my family, my beautiful new wife, I'm here. Standing on my own two feet.